Tales in Sinnoh
by SyndicateALPHA
Summary: The first in the Syndicate Trilogy. Sixteen year old Syndicate Izikagi always thought he wanted a quiet life until he met Professor Rowan. Once Syndicate meets Cyrus, the leader of Team Galactic, he must stop Cyrus from destroying existence itself whilst maintaining enough gym badges and courage to become strong enough to face his most powerful foe.
1. A New Beginning

**VERY IMPORTANT: To prevent confusion, this adventure is a Nuzlocke and is based on the plot in Pokemon Diamond. Pokemon such as Dialga belong to Game Freak and characters such as Syndicate belong to me. For confusion of whether this story is a self insert, NO. I am NOT Syndicate, but Syndicate is my character, no matter how similar it is to my username.**

My name is Syndicate. I have black hair that goes to the bottom of my neck and usually ends up covering half my eye. I also wear a red jacket, black jeans, and black boots. Often, I like to wear a silver wristwatch, but I often forget to put it on. I just moved into my new home, but a silhouette yelled in my way, and went into a building. Leaving my mother to pack, I followed the figure. The room was dark.  
"Hello there!", a voice said. Presumably, it came from the silhouette. "It's so very nice to meet you!"  
"What is -" I begun to ask, but the voice interrupted me.  
"Welcome to the world of Pokemon!", it continued. I begun looking for the door, but it must have been blocked on the outside, because it didn't even budge. The light suddenly came on. It was a rather obese-ish man with brown shoes, dark blue jeans, a white shirt, a blue vest, white hair, and a white mustache that covered the man's upper lip. His eye color wasn't clear, though. "My name is Rowan.", he said.  
"Yeah, cool, can I leave now?", I asked, but he pretended like I never said anything.  
"However, everyone just calls me the Pokemon Professor. Before I go any further, is this your first adventure?", Rowan asked.  
"Adventure? What, now?"  
"If you need advice, I'm certainly capable of giving it."  
"I... What? I've heard about going on one, but me?" I was worried. Who was this Rowan guy? Why is he a professor? Does he teach?  
"This world is widely inhabited by creatures known as Pokemon. Here, I have a Poke ball. Touch the middle of the Poke Ball, if you please."  
"Uh..." I struggled to speak.  
"TOUCH IT!" Professor Rowan yelled. I just calmed myself, and poked it. A Poke ball is a ball with a red upper half, white lower half, and white, circular middle. Suddenly, a Pokemon came out. Munchlax?  
"We humans live alongside Pokemon as friends." Rowan said. "At times we play together, and at other times we work together. Some people use their Pokemon to battle and develop closer bonds between them." He started to pause. "What do I do? I conduct research so that we may learn more about Pokemon." Munchlax went back into it's Poke ball. Now, why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself."  
"Uhm..." I just stopped breathing for twelve straight seconds. Why does he want me?  
Is the man blind? "Are you a boy, or are you a girl?"  
I just ended it there. I slapped myself until I realized my hands were covered in blood, plunging me back into reality. I wiped it off, but realized that there were no wounds in my hands. My face was bleeding. I played along, and answered his question.  
"I am a boy", I said reluctantly. Did I need ever have to answer such a question? Maybe not.  
"Oh, so you are a boy?" He asked again. I rolled my eyes then nodded. "Tell me, what is your name?"  
"Syn... Syndicate" I said slowly  
"So your Syn? A fine name that is!" He only took the first few letter of my name. Great, I bet it's going to be plopped onto my nametag, permanently stuck to my favorite shirt, and now all of the extremist Christians are going to go after poor mother. "Now this boy here... I believe he's your friend. What might his name be?" Finally, Rowan was making sense. The boy wore brown shoes, blue jeans, a red and white striped jacket, green scarf, brown bag, and had blonde hair that stood up directly above his ears.  
"Oh, him?" I said. He's been with me for awhile. In fact, he's my half brother. "His name is Trent"  
"Trent is it? That your friends name?" He asked as I nodded.  
"Alright Syn, the time has come," He said. "Your very own tale of grand adventure is about to unfold. On your journey, you will meet countless Pokemon and people. I'm sure that along the way you will discover many things, perhaps even something about yourself. Now, go on, leap into the world of Pokemon!", then he shoved me out the door. I walked home and turned on the TV, but not before I said hi to mom.  
"Despite the exploration team's best efforts," The news reporter said, "however, the rare, oddly colored Pokemon eluded detection. The rumored red Gyarados failed to appear, even fleetingly, to the crestfallen team."  
"That concludes our special report, "Search for the Red Gyarados!", a message on the TV appeared. "Brought to you by Jubilife TV on Nationwide Net! See you next time!"  
I sat in my new room. Apparently, I lived in the attic. In the front of the room was a staircase, TV, conveniently-placed Wii, clock, and computer with just one document that says "adventure rules". Not sure why that's there. In the middle was a rug, and the back has my bed and a tree. I set my clock then took a nap. Two hours later, I went downstairs.  
My mom yelled my name, starting the day off well. "Trent came calling for you a little while ago.", she said. "I don't know what it was about, but he said it was an emergency.", then she sat on the couch in front the downstairs TV. "Oh, and don't go into the tall grass! You don't have a Pokemon to defend yourself.", Mom said.  
"Yeah, I know." I said. I got dressed, then went out.  
"Twinleaf town... Why is this place here again?" I visited one of the houses, only to find Trent pushing into me.  
"What was that about?!" Trent yelled. It was his fault, really. "Oh, hey, Syn! I'm going to the lake. You come too! And be quick about it! OK, Syn? I'm fining you one million poke-dollars if your late!" He ran off, then came back. "Oh, jeez! Forgot something!" Then he ran into his house, as I followed. I found him upstairs grabbing his stuff. How can he forget it? He even left his bag behind.  
"Oh hey! We're going to the lake! I'll be waiting on the road! It's a TEN million fine if your late!", and he rushed back down. I hated that kid sometimes.


	2. Lakefront Attack

-Lakefront Attack-

Because I knew that Trent couldn't possible fine me that much just because I was late too hang out with him, I decided to meet the other neighbors. I made sure my cheeks had band-aids, and decided to visit the other two households. One of the houses was completely empty, but a man talking about how the power of science was amazing was standing outside it. That left the other house. Small neighborhood. I knocked. No answer. I knocked again. Nothing.  
_ Three times the charm, right?_, I thought to myself. Suddenly, there was a voice.  
"Come in!", the voice said. I walked in, and apparently, their house had the exact same design. Coincidence much? The voice came from a woman who sat in the darkness.  
"We don't need lighting", she said. Apparently, the only source of light on the first floor was the TV.  
"I'm just meeting the neighbors," I said. "I just moved here."  
"Oh," the woman said. All I could make out of her was her eyes and a few facial features. "The only ones other than me, you, and anyone who lives with you is some Trent kid, his parents, and my daughter." I closed my eyes slowly, and apparently the woman has night vision, because she grabbed my shoulders and asked me what was wrong.  
"I never met my father..." I said slowly.  
Ah." She replied simply. "Would you like to meet my daughter?", and I nodded.  
"She's upstairs. Her name is Cressa." I walked clumsily up the stairs until I found the rhythm of the steps, then I got used to it. I opened the door, and my eyes closed for a few seconds then opened back up. The bedroom was much brighter than the living room.  
"Hi..." She said slowly. "Who are you?"  
"I'm Syndicate, but Mr. Rowan likes to call me Syn."  
"Cressa.", She bowed. She wore a white dress, white satchel, and a white sunhat with yellow floral patterns. In case you couldn't imagine, she had white shoes.  
"Is that your real name?" I asked. I've never heard a name like that."  
"My mother changed it at a young age, and I can't remember my old name," She said. "She changed it because I was fascinated by a sight I saw years ago."  
"What was it?"  
"I didn't know," She answered. "I did some research, and it is apparently Cresselia, curer of nightmares and representative of the full moon." Cresselia... That name sounds familiar... Wasn't that the counterpart of Darkrai, giver of nightmares and representative of the new moon? Oh wait, yeah, it is.  
After discussing random stuff, I went out to meet Trent in the forest.  
"Hey, you remember the news this morning?" Trent asked. I guess I wasn't late.  
"Yeah...?" I answered.  
"The search for the red Gyarados?"  
"Yes."  
"The mysterious app–"  
"What's your point!?"  
"Well, I bet our local lake has one!"  
"Trent... Are you mad!?"  
"I dunno, can pigs fly?" We went out to the lake and saw two people chatting away.  
"What's going on?" Trent asked. I gave him a well deserved slap in the face.  
"Professor, there isn't anything out of the ordinary happening at the other side either!", A mysterious voice said. Oh, god. Rowan is back.  
"Hmm... I may have been mistaken. Something appears to be different different than it was before, but..." Rowan replied to the voice. "Fine! It's enough that we've seen the lake. Dawn, we're leaving. We can improve our studies later." They start walking in our direction and left the lakeside. They didn't say anything except "Excuse me."  
"What was that?" Trent asked.  
"Are you deaf?", I answered. "It's for studies! The unusual stuff was probably what you came for.  
"Hey, Syndicate! Look at this!" , Trent yelled. There was a briefcase sitting in the middle of tall grass. We walked there and starting thinking about it.  
"Trent, we should deliver this.", I said.  
"But... who are they?" Trent asked.  
"They must be Professor Rowan and the other person..." I couldn't make out much of the figure. It sounded like a girl, and she wore a beanie with a poke ball design on it. She also had long, black hair. "He called her Dawn."  
"Well then..." Trent started, but suddenly, Starlys attacked us.  
"Oh god," I said. "What now? We don't have any Pokemon!"  
"Scratch that," Trent yelled. "I opened the briefcase, and found poke balls!"  
"Oh, all right!" I yelled at him. The Starlys were getting fierce. I had to do it, and there was no time to question Trent about why he even opened it. I highly doubt even why they had three poke balls. I took one, and Trent took another.  
"All right, I hope it's a good one!" I yelled. If this was a terrible Pokemon, it'd be over for me, even if the Starlys were level three or one hundred.  
I threw the poke ball, and out came a Piplup. Cute.  
"Piplup! Pound that Starly!" I told him. As if he were my Piplup, it pounded the Starly. The Starly got mad, and it tackled Piplup.  
Piplup looked like he was ready to give up, but I looked at him, and it looked at me.  
"Use pound again!", I said. Piplup pounded the Starly again, and it fainted.  
"Yes!", I yelled in victory. I watched as Trent use his Pokemon to defend against the other Starly.  
"We did it!", Trent yelled, and we gave each other a high-five. "Your Piplup was strong, but my Turtwig was stronger!"  
"Turtwig?" I asked. His Turtwig hopped on Trent's shoulder.  
"Yeah.", Trent replied.  
"He's very..." I said slowly. "Green?"  
"I know!" Trent put his Turtwig back into it's poke ball, and I tried the same for mine, but Piplup wouldn't leave my side. He is a penguin, after all. Cuteness factor has been overloaded.  
Without warning, Dawn came back. Including her beanie and blueish black hair, I could see the rest of Dawn. She had gold earrings, a white tank top under a black T-shirt, pink skirt, long, pink boots with even longer black socks, one band for each wrist, and one, hot pink scarf.  
"What the... Did you two use these Pokemon?" Dawn yelled  
"Uhm..." Trent answered awkwardly. "No...?"  
"Ugh. The professor will be so mad." She then took the briefcase and left.  
"What was that about...? Ugh, Let's go Syn."  
"You forgot your search for the red Gyarados." I replied quickly.  
"Screw that. We just need to go home." He said. We left the lakeside and found the Professor and Dawn right as we reach the house. The Professor forced us to let him inspect our Pokemon. Then, he said he'd meet us in his lab in Sandgem town.  
"Why Sandgem?" Trent asked. I slapped him again.  
"It is my lab, after all. It's just down that path." The professor answered.  
Now, we're going into the woods.  
"Cya, Syn!" Trent yelled as he rushed there. I decided to spend a little more time here. I trained Piplup to make him stronger, then I went to Sandgem. The Professor said I could keep him.  
"Thanks!" I said.  
"You know, I think you deserve a name..." I told my Piplup. "Jendoa! That shall be your name!"  
"Cool!" Jendoa said. "I have a name now!" I shook my head wildly, but I quickly calmed down afterwards. I didn't want Rowan to stare at me. I walked outside and started a chat.  
"How long could Pokemon talk?" I asked.  
"We always could." Jendoa answered. "It's just that very few people can understand them. You have a gift, Syndicate."  
"That just makes the adventure all the more fun." I said. This will be interesting...


	3. Jubilife City

To start, I had to buy Poke balls. I need some way to make new Pokemon friends.  
Along the way I met a Starly named Sai and a Shinx named Shox. It does have electric powers, after all. Both Sai and Shox were Female, and Jendoa was pretty much the self-appointed leader of the group.  
I decided that, as a trainer, I should make my Pokemon stronger, so I went and did that. After bringing them all up to level twelve, I decided to continue my adventure north. Where am I going? I dunno, but I am getting bored of Sandgem town.  
"Well," Shox said. "I guess it's time we finally get into the action. Woo!"  
"I dunno. If we die, we only get an extra chance." Sai said. She seemed worried, but she isn't the most enthusiastic. That's Shox's job.  
"Come on, Sai, We'll be fine. Shox is right, but so are you. If we die twice, it's over.", Jendoa said.  
"By the way, how were we blessed with an extra life?" Sai asked. She may be underwhelming in the enthusiasm department, but she always asked the best questions.  
"Not sure..." Jendoa answered.  
"ORAAAAN BERRRIIIEEEEES!" Shox said. It was the best answer Sai got, but that's because it was the only answer besides an "I don't know".  
I went north in a zigzag pattern, because I guess whoever cut the path through these woods liked those sort of patterns. We ran into some trouble, but we stayed just fine. The path was much longer than expected, and more trouble came the deeper into the woods I got. Jendoa leveled up and was able to take a couple more hits than earlier. We ran into some trainers who wanted to battle us, but this meant that there was just an extra chance for death. Fortunately, Jendoa was strong and led his team to victory, safely. Fortunately, before any real damage could be done, we reached Jubilife City, the largest town in Sinnoh. Or, at least I think it is.  
I went in, and found Dawn.  
"Hi, Syn!", she said. "Are you catching Pokemon?"  
"What," I asked "Do you want to battle me? I have two more than last time we met."  
"...Um..."  
"What?"  
"I think you'd feel a lot safer if you were to catch some more."  
"What!?" Shox broke out of her poke ball. "Syndicate is safe! We're out-leveling those pathetic bidoofs by SEVEN!", but Dawn didn't understand, and just petted Shox. She lived up to her name, and Dawn was given enough electricity to power a car. After cleaning her face with her scarf Dawn kicked Shox and I sent her back to her Poke ball.  
"In Jubilife City, there's the Trainers' School, which... Well, you know."  
"It's self-explanatory?" I asked  
"Pretty much." Dawn answered. "Syn, you should visit it. You'll get some tips on Pokemon." Shox broke out again and started chasing her. While that happened, I sat on a bench and let Jenoa and Sai have fun together. Better letting Shox cool off than to force her to calm herself, because you'll just make her angrier by restraining her.  
After 20 minutes of me just sitting and the other two Pokemon discuss the insanity of Trent, Dawn came back holding Shox.  
"Oh yes," Dawn said after Shox went back into her Pokeball. "Trent went to the Trainers' School earlier. Bye now!" That was... interesting? At least I learned more about Shox and how unobservant Dawn is.  
"Jubilife City, the City of Joy..." I read the sign. I decided to go explore the city. I went into the Pokemon center and then healed said Pokemon.  
"That's better..." Sai said. Not sure how she'd feel any different, because she's been at full health.  
I checked out the trainer school. I learned nothing, but I did spar with some people. Two, to be exact. The girl was... pathetic, and the boy was the exact same except... Yeah, they're the same at battling. The boy did give me a TM, but it was for a rather pathetic move. I saw Trent, so I talked to him.  
"Hey, Syn! Did you come to study, too?" Trent asked.  
"I'm adventurous. I like to explore. Are you here to study?"  
"I went ahead and memorized everything that was up on the blackboard."  
"What's it say?"  
"So, Syn, what brings you?"  
"Uh... Adventure, and this package. Your mom said you forgot it, even if you grabbed everything at the last second."  
"What is it?"  
"I dunno. Open it."  
"Score! It's a Town Map!"  
"I could use one."  
"Why are there two?"  
"Sweet!" I said in victory. Last thing I want is to get lost, besides death of friends, of course.  
"Take it, Syn."  
"Hmm..." Trent contemplated. What now? "Well, according the Town Map, I guess Oreburgh City is where I should be going next. There's a Gym so it'd be perfect for raising the Pokemon I just caught."  
"Nice!" I said. I've been wanting to test my friends and my skill.  
"Well, I'm on the road to becoming the GREATEST TRAINER OF ALL TIME!"  
"Good luck with that. It'd be hard being the best at a skill if you can't even be decent at social skills."  
"See you around!" At least it was over.  
I studied the blackboard that Trent was covering up.  
"Status changes..." I whispered. I'll be fine.


	4. Travels to Oreburgh

I realized that if I was going to catch up with Trent, I needed to train. I brought Jendoa to level sixteen, Shox to level 15, and Sai to level 12. I also met two new friends, Maverick the Zubat, and Benjamin the Magikarp, which essentially the most pathetic thing in the universe, and it's a fish. They're both pretty bad, actually. However, I see potential in them. In fact, Benjamin could be the most powerful thing in my team. For now, they're just there. At level six, the others overpower them by just a bit.  
Speaking of the others, Jendoa and Shox recently evolved. My good friend Jendoa became a Prinplup, and Shox became a rather majestic Luxio. However, to every positive story, there is a negative somewhere in there.  
"Ha! I can take this plant!", Shox said in her usual voice. It was a Budew.  
Shox did a pretty good job at taking out the Budew. He just didn't do a very good job at getting out of there without major damage.  
She was poisoned, and after escaping the body of the Budew, Shox started getting weaker and weaker.  
"I... I... Please..." She pleaded.  
"It'll be OK," I told her. Every second meant more and more pain. Her health was being drained, and I had to act quick. She only gets two chances at life, and I don't want to feel like it was my fault, because I told her that she could take the Budew. I managed to hear her at the last second, and I was relieved. I told both Shox, Jendoa, and Sai that they didn't need any more training. Sai seemed jealous that they got to evolve and she didn't I told her to keep her chin up, because she'll evolve very soon. I said I'd make an exception with Maverick, and poor Benjamin can't train for his life.  
"Just wait." Ben didn't like talking. Maverick was often lost in thought, so neither did he.  
I eventually gave up on training Maverick, because his offensive capabilities were limited, so I let him be. I continued east from Jubilife only to find a field with a bunch of trees. I assigned Jendoa as the one to lead the team currently. It was pretty short, though. After battling some kid and his bidoof and a weaker version of Maverick, I got a Pokeball. I went up some steps and found that the route branched out two ways. I check the upper path, and I couldn't access it because my Pokemon don't know Surf. I took the lower path and found anther kid. Do their parents know they're there? I won't describe how this is going. I saw a girl named Kaitlin, and she was a bit more interesting. Her first pokemon was another bidoof. The second one was the worst thing possible: a budew. Shox got so crazy, she forced me to use her.  
"I'll feel better taking the thing out." She told me.  
"No," I answered. "You nearly died last time!"  
"All the SWEETER!" She yelled. Shox wasn't the happy-go-lucky Shinx anymore. She forced herself to battle, and it began.  
"Your cousin... nearly KILLED ME!" Shox yelled. Budew just laughed  
"Ha!", The Budew said. "Do you realize what you got yourself into! It's over for you! The Pokemon Center is all the way over there. You'd never make it! Even if you did take me out, there is a very high chance you'll experience it all over again!"  
"No..." Shox said. She knew that the Budew was right. If she so much as touched it, she could almost die again.  
"It's a risk I'll have to TAKE!" Shox lashed. She bit the Budew, and then it all happened again.  
Just kidding, Shox turned out okay.  
"Budews..." Shox said as she spat at the ground.  
After batting some kid named Sebastian, I realized I was close. There was a fork in the road. Left, and right.  
I checked out the leftern path first. It was just a bunch of grass, but I also got to the upper path from earlier and saw an item. My prize is... A repel. Huh.  
I went right, and it was a cave. The sign said that Oreburgh was that way. Is Oreburgh in a cave? That'd be odd. I went in the cave and saw a man.  
"Who are you?" I asked  
"A poketch enthusiast! Ya know, that watch thing you got with a clock, pedometer, and a map!" He gave me HM06, and I'm not very good at identifying Hms and TMs by number.  
"What's it do?"  
"Rock Smash!"  
"Cool?" I moved on. More trainers. God. A fork in the road between north and east led me east. Why not? I saw an opening very early in the cave, so I turned around and took the northern path, but not before fighting another Budew. Wait till Shox sees a Roserade.  
"Lemme at 'em!" Shox said. Fine. Shox bit the Budew, and she was just fine. Huh. I tried the upper path, but it was blocked off. I then reached Oreburgh.  
"Well, this is it..." I said to myself. I looked down at my team. A Prinplup, a Luxio, a Starly, a Zubat, and a Magikarp. Is this going to be easy?


	5. Roark

After reaching Oreburgh, I went straight for the gym. Trent was already there, saying that the gym leader went into the mines.  
"The mines are south from here. Good luck. With that team, you'll need it." Trent told me. After giving an angry look to Trent, I went to the mines and found the gym leader. Easy enough. She headed for the gym, and Roark was ready. So was I. I walked to the gym, and found two paths. A middle, and upper way. I took the upper path, and the fight began.  
"Hm." I said. I knew that I was ready, but I felt worried. What if someone died?  
"I am Roark", the gym leader said. "As a gym leader, it is my duty to battle any challenger, big or small."  
"I am Syndicate." I introduced myself. "Half-orphan and future champion."  
"'Half-orphan'?"  
"My dad's dead."  
"Fine. Let us begin." It was all so sudden. One second I was lounging in Twinleaf Town, and now I'm facing the first gym leader of Sinnoh. Holy mother of pancakes, this will be interesting.  
Roark started with a Geodude. Peice of cake.  
"Jendoa," I ordered him. "Use bubble!" Sparx winked at Jendoa. I let my Pokemon out to watch.  
"Think he'd win?" Sai asked Maverick.  
"Huh? Oh. I dunno. I don't pay much attention to this sort of thing. Probably." And Maverick kept thinking of cheese. Yeah, I know that. Maverick tell us about his thoughts every night. It means I can't sleep until two hours after sleep time.  
The bubble obliterated the Geodude.  
"Hrm... You aren't any ordinary trainer. Onix!"  
"Huh? Wha?" I heard the Onix asked. "I've been in that poke ball for years!" Onix made a joyous laugh.  
_Sorry_, I mouthed.  
"Hit him with bubble!" Onix fainted.  
"Grahh!" Roark yelled. "Fine, you want difficulty? Take it! Take it ALL!" Out came Cranidos. It's eyes gleamed of iron and stone. Cranidoses often have terrible defense, but awesome attack. I switched out to Sai, because she might be able to outspeed the thing.  
I was wrong. The Cranidos used pursuit, and it did over half, meaning that switching out was pointless. Wing attack, the strongest move any of my pokemon had, and it did a quarter. Not enough.  
"Sai!" Jendoa yelled.  
"Help me... Syn?" Sai requested.  
"I'm sorry, Sai. You will die. I... can't... help you. I'd switch you out, but it's be redundant because it just used pursuit. Sai...?" Tears rolled down my cheek as I kneeled to the ground. "Sai..." I told her.  
"Yes... Sydicate?" Sai asked. Her beak was cracked and only three of her talons were in one piece. There was a hole in her wing, and it was a matter of time before it dealt the final blow.  
"If you lose your extra life... Well, you won't die in vain. I swear... Your sacrifice will never be forgotten."  
"What's that boy doing?" Roark asked. I didn't tell her. She wouldn't understand.  
"Sai," I got up and wiped away the tears. My band-aids had washed away, and my face was as red as fire. Blood, emotion, want for revenge, it all combined to wash all the color off my face. My skin was never tan again. It was eternally white. Cool story, but let's jump into the action. "Use quick attack!" The Cranidos was at half. It headbutted Sai, and her protective life shield was gone.  
"Sai..." I knew she wasn't killed, but another fainting will. "Jendoa, your up." Jendoa bowed, and used bubble on the thing. It was gone.  
"I..." Roark said. "I... How did? But, then? Huh?"  
"I beat you." I told her. The revenge part left my face, and it became a pinkish. The emotion shrinked, and my skin turned white. Blood still came from my face, but it slowed.  
"Ugh. I can't believe I lost to someone without any badges! Well, according to law, I must give this to you.  
"The Coal badge..." I marveled at it. I ran to the Pokemon Center, then healed them all. Sai was very sad. She could die at any time. I washed out my face, and the bleeding stopped. I guess I could've always done it.


	6. Gardenia

I left the Pokemon center and headed after Eterna City. I went back to Jubilife City then headed north. Suddenly, I ran into two guys with blue hair and white jumpsuits.  
"Ah!" One of the men said.  
"Indeed!" The other said.  
"A kid! Give me your Pokemon!" the first man yelled. We then had a battle, and it was just too easy. They both ran away, and some guy gave me an award. I went farther North, and some girl with green hair asked me to guide her through the forest ahead.  
"Eterna Forest has so many poison types! Help me get through it!"  
I reluctantly agreed, and she left me as I reached our destination: Floaroma City. I got some berries, fought more blue-haired guys, and I suddenly found myself in a dilemma.  
"Those meanies took my daddy!" A little girl said. I went into the wind works and found more guys in white jumpsuits. Who are these guys? Suddenly, without answer, I met a girl named Commander Mars.  
"Hah! You think you can mess up our plans? We are Team Galactic! We do what we want!"  
"Not if I have anything to say about it!" I told Mars.  
"Let's make a deal. I win, you leave. You win, we leave." And we were battling before you can say "chumbawuma". Why chumbawuma? I dunno.  
She started with a Zubat. Knocked it out with two hits.  
"Yeah, Jendoa!" I yelled. "Take 'em down!" He nodded, and out came a Purugly. Jendoa used rock smash three times, but now before Jendoa took major damage. I saved the father, headed farther north, started training, and rushed to the Gym. Gardenia.  
"Sai?" I asked her. She was now a beautiful Staravia.  
"Yes?" She asked.  
"It's time to redeem yourself." Finally, I went inside, with Sai in the lead. The inner gym looked like a forest, and she wanted me to find all the trainers inside. Easy enough. Sai was level 20, Jendoa at 23, Shox at 20, Maverick at 12, and the recently renamed Benjamin, Uno, at level 8, when I had beaten two of Gardenia's students. Beating for meant Gardenia. It was time.  
"Huh, I had a hunch you'd get this far. Well, let's battle." Gardenia said. Cherubi. Piece o' cake. One hit Wing Attack kill. Turtwig.  
"Turtwig?" I asked. Didn't Trent have one?  
"Why, why?" I didn't answer.  
"Sai! Hit him with a wing attack!" It did a one hit fall. Suddenly, it was Roserade. I saw Shox's Pokeball shake, but I ignored it.  
"Sai, you'll be okay. Just use wing attack, and it'll all end."  
"It's not the end yet..." Gardenia said. I saw her smile. What was she hiding? Roserade used grass knot, and Sai took 13 damage. The Roserade was at like 10 health points, but it used it's sitrus berry, so it went to half health.  
"Do you think you have me? Cornered me?" Gardenia asked. Not really. If Roserade inflicted enough damage or a critical hit with grass knot, it could be over for Sai, and the last hope would be Jendoa carrying Pluck, but even then, Roserade is VERY fast, and Jendoa is weak against grass, which is Roserade in a nutshell.  
I breathed calmly, and told Sai to Wing Attack. To live or not to live, what is the answer? Roserade used grass knot again, and Sai was fine. In fact, she leveled up.  
"Amazing! You're very good, aren't you!" Gardenia said. "I might've said it before, but your really tough! Wasn't it hard for you to raise your Pokemon to be so good?"  
"Yes and No" I answered.  
"I guess that's a measure of how much you love your Pokemon. In recognition of that, I proudly grant you this!"  
Forest Badge! Well, that is the gym in a nutshell, a forest.


	7. Commander Jupiter

I went to the bike shop to... get a bike, but apparently the manager was in the Team Galactic Tower. Why did it have to be a tower? So, I decided to go up and rescue him. I went to climb up, but two members battled me. They didn't know what was coming to them. I climbed up the steps. Level two. I skimmed my way through the second level, but I had to fight in the third. No damage taken, though. Second battle. A Kadabra? This won't be as easy... I switch from Sai to Shox as the Kadabra used confusion. Fortunately, no confusion. It does do stupidly high damage, though. I ran down to heal, because I could, then I returned. Level four. I saw two people. A man and a woman with bubble-gum colored hair. There was also a Clefairy behind the woman along with a Buneary  
"Who are you?" I asked the girl with bubble-gum hair. I knew the man was the bike manager.  
"I," She said "am Commander Jupiter"  
"There are multiple commanders?"  
"What'd you think?", so we battled. Zubat. I told Sai to use Wing Attack. So overpowered right now. It actually left it with almost five HP. The Zubat used Giga Drain, but it didn't leave a scratch.  
"Use Quick Attack! Finish the Job!" I told Sai.  
"Yes," Sai told me. "Friend..." I smiled. The Zubat was out. She sent out Skuntank, of all things. Why Skuntank? It's no Tyranitar, but come ON! This early on?  
"Jendoa should have some fun." I told Sai. She returned, and out came Jendoa, the Prinplup.  
"Hello. What shall I do for you, Syndicate?" Jen asked.  
"Use Rock Smash. It'll weaken the Skuntank. I was scared. What could happen? Smokescreen, accuracy drop. This is VERY bad. Poison Gas, Screech, we could die here and now.  
"Jendoa! Try to take it!" I yelled. It wasn't supposed to end like this. Jendoa had three health points. I switch back to Sai, and used Quick Attack twice, and it ended. Jendoa was weak, and poisoned. He could die at any moment. She left. I rushed to the Pokemon Center to save Jendoa. Somehow, the Poisoning stopped working. It was like Jendoa was meant to live. Either that, or Poisoning can't finish off anything. I was able to save Jendoa on time, and the pain ended. The man said to visit his shop, so I did. I also got a free bike. Sweet. I went south to go biking, because some idiot kept forcing me too, and I headed for somewhere. I didn't know where, but staying wasn't an option. I then met Dawn. She wanted me to pick which hand. Huh?  
"Left?"  
She gave me the Vs. Seeker. Whatever. I saw a slope and went down it. Oreburgh. I'm close to my destination. I found a tunnel. Interesting... I headed down it, and set Jendoa in the lead.  
"I can get lost here, better be careful..." I told myself. It was very large. I stayed close to the entrance and got one thing. I don't think I'm ready for this. Stardust. I can make lots of Poke dollars with this. As I left, random Psyduck.  
So I went eat, but then Rowan found me and told me to continue on my journey.  
"Fine," I told him. "But if anyone dies, can you bring them back?"  
"On one condition..." He said quietly. I hate it when the deal has a catch. "You have to beat the Pokemon Champion." Well, crud. The champion? Does he mean the strongest trainer in Sinnoh? Cynthia?  
Cynthia.. The blonde hair... the black outfit... She has charm, but she also has skill. I've taught my followers about her team. Spiritomb, the ghostly Pokemon with no weakness. Roserade, the leafy Pokemon with poison and speed (Shox cringed), Gastrodon, the... What is that thing? It's a sort of slug-looking thing. Lucario, one of the most powerful of Cynthia's Pokemon, with it's steel-covered paws and aura abilities, Milotic, considered the most beautiful of all pokemon, and Garchomp, the land dragon. It's only weaknesses are dragon and ice, and I don't exactly know where I could get an Ice-type. Still, I have all the time in the world to prepare.  
I decided to set off and continue my journey. Hearthome city. I didn't like it. Mom told me something about contests. Show-off contests. I went with her because I had to and ran away as soon as possible. I also got an egg, which hatched into a Happiny. I named it Vivi.  
I decided to continue on. Jendoa was level 27, Sai was 25, Maverick was 12, Uno was 8, and Vivi was 1. Looks like I need to do some training. Hopefully, nobody dies. I headed back to Mt. Coronet, then a hiking path, then Oreburgh City, then the Oreburgh cave, where Jendoa leveled up. Then came a grassy path, Jubilife city, and I headed south. Perfect training for Vivi. My strategy was to lead with Vivi, switch to another pokemon, and let them take care of it all. Eventually, Vivi reached level 3, but I didn't stop there. I went underground to find an Oval Stone. I found a damp rock, a fire and sun stone, a few elemental plates, but not stone. Oh well. Vivi reached level 4 and started talking.  
"I love rainbows! Cookies! Unicorns! Raincookicorns! Yay!" Vivi said. Happiny is being Happiny.  
Sai got poisoned, so I ran off to find a pokemon center. I got lost and found Floaroma town. Whoop-dee-freaking-doo. I headed east and found a lone Drifloon.  
"Are you alright? Are you someones trainer?" I asked it.  
"Yes..." It replied. "She left me... but I like you... catch me to prove your worth..."  
I bowed my head. It's a good idea to stay calm when you try to catch ghost types. Being aggressive to them may make them run away or possess something of yours... including your body...  
Then, it began. I used Maverick as the lead for this battle. It's very risky, but he might just be able to pull it off...  
I saw it's level. Twice as high as Maverick's. Oh, crud! Maverick can barely take Pokemon HALF his level with his moveset. I immediately switched to Sai. It used a ghost type move. Forturnately, Sai was normal, so it did nothing.  
"Sai, use Wing attack!" It was the only thing Sai could do to it. It did just enough, under half. It used gust, which did 5 damage. Fine.  
"Go, Great ball!" Success! What to call him? Airhead? Too racist against balloons... It's a girl.. so... Naomi? Good name, but I think I'll save it for something a bit more elegant. Windskipper? No... Then, it came to me like a brick randomly hit me in the face, which it did. Fortunately, no long-term damage. Just a blackened eye.  
"Pandora!" Great name. Now, I just have to find Hearthome city. Meanwhile, Vivi reached level 6. Not enough. I checked my map.  
"So.. I can head northwest to Eterna City, and then continue west, then south to Hearthome city, or I can go –"  
"RAINCOOKICORNS!" Vivi said. Enthusiasm is pretty much Vivi's best quality. I already had a route, so there was no reason to waste time scolding her. Upsetting an enthusiastic Pokemon is not only difficult, but a death sentence if you successfully do it.  
I needed to train Vivi, Maverick, and Uno, because they weren't any higher than level 13. I decided to train Vivi, then Maverick, then Uno. I decided to train on the way there. Best thing I could do, really. I found a house, and was invited inside. They allowed me to rest and watch Tv.  
The first thing I saw was a commercial. "Our peace for your world. Team Galactic." If Jupiter was only an administrator, who was the leader? The shows were terrible, and the family only had one channel. I thanked them, and continued on. I wasn't making much progress, but Maverick was doing pretty well against the Shellos here, which are pretty much the baby versions of the Gastrodons I mentioned earlier, so I stayed a little while longer for Maverick's sake. The others got bored, so I let them go play, but I might need them because Maverick can run into trouble easily. Jendoa, on the other hand, felt as if he could protect Maverick, so I let him. Immedietly after, a Floatzel, a sort of water weasel. I called Shox in, and so on.  
I found a bunch of trees, and decided to cut them down with a Bidoof's teeth.  
I followed the path. Did I mention I've had this Bidoof? He's on my team to use HM moves. I caught a Budew, and named that Naomi. Surprisingly, Shox didn't seem to care. I replaced Vivi and Uno with Naomi and Fud, the Bidoof. Funny thing is, now Jendoa is the only male in the current team. At the end of the path, there was a creepy mansion.  
"Let's go explore it." I told the others. Everyone was either happy or didn't respond. I found a Bullet seed TM, and gave it to Naomi.


	8. The Old Chateau

It was a dark a stormy night... Actually it was kind of sunny, but that's not the point. Upon entering, the mood changed greatly, and it was dark and stuff. There were holes in the tiles, it looked like a two-story fancy motel from the 1800s, and it was large. I headed inside, and there were three paths. Upstairs, the left hall, forwards, and the right hall. The right hall was empty, but the left hall had an old gateau. What a nice pun.  
"Whoa... I said. I took the middle path and found a dining room, as a Pokemon statue appeared and it felt as if it were glaring at me. The dining room was huge. I led with Sai. I found a kitchen. The place was creepy, what with the main colors being rather dim. Suddenly, a Pokemon. Here? Gastly, the ghost type. This will prove... interesting, considering the only thing Sai can do right now is wing attack, so she does it.  
"Join the land of the ghosts..." The Gastly said.  
Wing attack was, fortunately a critical hit. Nice! It was a one hit kill. Good... I needed to train Naomi, but this didn't seem like such a good place to do so. There were trash cans nearby, so I searched them. Only of them actually had something inside. Antidotes, for when your Pokemon are poisoned. That should be useful.  
The dining room was devoid of anything I could take, so I moved on. My next stop was the rightern room. Nothing notable besides a trash can. Empty. Finally, the last room. Upstairs north.  
I ran into a bunch of Gastlys, but they always seem to die in one hit from Sai's wing attack.  
The final room was a hall with a bunch of rooms, so I did a west-to-east search. The first room had bookshelves with books on them, but they also had tables next to it, one table even covering a bookshelf. That was the leftern side, while the rightern side had chairs. Chairs, chairs, chairs galore. The middle had a thing. I love things! Of course, depending on what they are. It was a Dread plate, an object that boosted the power of Dark Type moves. Normal, except for the fact there was text engraved in the back, whichever side that is, considering it's the same both sides, but I'm saying it's the back because I picked it up with that side down.  
"When the universe was created, its shards became this plate", the engraving said. I put it in my convienently-placed backpack, and moved on. Wasn't that a reference to the legendary Pokemon Arceus?  
I checked the next room. A bit more interesting, if you will. It had a trash can, a pile of magazines, and a TV. Oh boy! It was the normal "Flashing black and white" thing. How sad, but it had a malevolent feel to it, as if a pokemon lived inside, but it was a bit more, sinister than the Gastlys.  
The room across from the entrance had two beds, two bookshelves, and a trash can. Nothing of interest.  
The fourth room had a bed, trash can, and a drawer.  
The fifth and final room was more interesting than any of the other rooms, including the TV room. It was empty and devoid, except for one thing in the center of the room. What could it be?  
I slowly approached it...

The suspense was killing me...

What was it...?

It was a TM for substitute. How anti-climactic.  
I left the room, and towards the exit.  
"Just one more game...? Please?" The ghosts asked. I gave them the simple answer that I'll come back, but not any time soon, and I was not lying. This was probably the most interesting thing that's happened in my journey, and the TV... the thing inside it had to leave eventually, but... what was it?


	9. Solaceon Town

I realized that I could go to Solaceon town, home of the Pokemon Day care and easiest way to train, so I decided to go there. Hopefully, it won't be too hard, I gain experience, and, most importantly, nobody dies. I wasn't too far. I just needed to get to Hearthome city and head east. I bought two escape ropes in Eterna city, and headed there. My first challenge? A grassy mountain range with bridges. Great. I wasn't even at Hearthome city, and I knew that this will prove interesting  
I finished battling a kid obsessed with ninjas and Zubats, and I found a Ponyta immedietely after  
"Oh yes..." Such a majestic creature, the Ponyta... I told Sai to quick attack it. Didn't want to inflict too much damage and kill it. I threw the first pokeball. Fail. Oh, well. Try again. Success  
"What to name you.." Scorch? Too intense for such an intelligent and elegant creature. Flame? Too simple. Phoenix? There's already at least two fire birds in the land of Pokemon, and Ponyta is not one of them.  
After some long consideration, I finally decided to call her Vatra, which is totally not a translation of fire that I looked up on the internet with my Pokedex.  
After catching Vatra, I realized something. I never took this route before, meaning that every trainer here I have to battle. Fortunately for everyone, the original three, Sparx, Jendoa, and Sai, outleveled nearly everything here by at least seven. Under the bridge, I found a TM for taunt. Good, I guess. Now, I have to face Mt. Coronet...  
After awhile, I realized that I was going the wrong way. Oops. So, I essentially just went the right way. Easy.  
So I reach Hearthome City, train east of there, and catch a Cleffa along the way. I traded Maverick's spot for Luna, the Cleffa's because I had hope in her.  
So essentially, Vatra is a master manipulator, Luna's a very happy, a bit dramatic, and outgoing person, whereas Naomi is a bit shy.  
So at the training spot, Luna tells me to pick the nearby berries, and I accept. I sneak past a jogger, and get the berries. Unfortunately, I couldn't sneak past him on the way back.  
The Jogger had Luxio, and I had Shox, a Luxio. I felt confident, and used Leer. Problem was, it used Spark, and Shox was paralyzed, not only slowing Shox, but also preventing him from moving every now and then.  
I went for Bite IMMEDIATELY after that, but the opposing Luxio used bite, and Shox flinched, almost making him go under half.  
"Damn!" I told Shox to try again. He is most likely to live this, but if he fails the third time, he's dead.  
It went for spark, which did a little damage, but enough to be 2 HP away from half. Here, I had two options.

1). Stay in, and leave it to Lady Luck, and luck hasn't exactly been on my side so far.

2). Switch out, and everyone else is either weak to electric or underdeveloped.

This was Shox's fight, but then I thought to myself... _If I switch to Sai, I could probably survive a bite, then use quick attack... _That plan is terrible. This is Shox's fight, as I said. It goes for Leer. Fine. I get past paralysis, and do under half. Now, since the leer is here, Shox will take extra damage, meaning that if the opponent goes for bite...

God...

Shox won't make it. It's either him, or Sai. Sai is EXTREMELY fast, and might be able to pull this off, while Shox has a very low chance of moving, and the paralysis slows him down, whereas Sai can get off at least one hit before dying...

"Sai.. you may die today..."  
"I understand..." She says. "If it saves Shox, then I'm up for it..." I switched, and intimidate lowered it's attack. Luxio used charge, raising it's electric type moves...  
"Go... use quick attack." It did just enough to take it out. All done... I ran to the Pokemon Center, and celebrated Sai's survival. After 8 more hours of training, I decided that it was time. Solaceon City was our next destination, and nothing would change that. During the training session, Luna evolved into a Clefairy, and I got a Spooky Plate with the back saying something about the giants falling or whatever. We continued on our journey to... You know, I don't even remember what it was called. I led with Jendoa for type coverage, considering the whole area here is 97% weak to or against Jendoa.  
The was a jogger in the way, so I tried to sneak behind him, and I succeed. I found a tower of crumbling rock, and placed a keystone in there. Much better. I say berries, and picked them for Luna's sake. They were Razz berries. I went ahead, but accidently ran into a cowgirl. She sent out a Bidoof. Better now than later, because Jendoa had Rock Smash, and it was super effective against them, and I'm playing with switch mode. Another Bidoof. Mk. I OHKOd it. A third Bidoof. It fell like the rest. Four Bidoofs? God... Last pokemon. Lemme guess, Bidoof? I'm correct? How sad. That's girl's such a Bidoofus...  
After sneaking past a strange couple, I ran into Solaceon Town, and was greeted with Persim, Nanab, and Figy berries. I skipped the day care for now. I had other things to do, like explore the town. First, I talked to the people on the outside. I got a Poketch app, stories of the Lost Tower, which I assume is the tower next to the circling couple. Then, I went inside every building besides the Day care. All I got was some facts I already knew and a Pokeball Customization Kit or something. I tried to play with the ball case. I realized that I needed seals to use the kit. Derp. At this point, I had two options...

1). Explore the Lost Tower

2). Explore the Solaceon ruins

Unlike the Luxio Fiasco, this wasn't life or death, so I just followed my instinct. I decided to go with the Solaceon ruins first.


	10. Where the Dead Lie

Getting in the ruins was no problem. Hopefully, I can say the same for when I leave. I led with Jendoa. That way, I can scout out for what type is dominant here. There were three paths, a nearer one lead leads right, and a left a right one farther down. There was a marked wall in between the staircase-paths.  
It was written in Unown, and I could read it, although I needed an empty piece of paper to "memorize" it. The trick is, the writing is just the normal, everyday Latin, except with a difficult font. I read it until there was no more to read.

"Top right"

"Lower left"

"Top right"

"Top left"

"Top left"

"Lower left"

To some, gibberish. To me, directions. Thus, I followed the directions by going down the specified steps in that order. I ran into some boy after the first direction. He said he'd give me seals. After the boy I ran into a battling man with Geodudes. I picked the right Pokemon to battle with. His third Pokemon was a Bronzor however. Psychic-Steel type... I wondered how I'd approach it, but then I realized that Sparx had bite, which was super effective against Bronzors.  
It went fine, even if the Bronzor had ridiculously high defense.  
I followed the instructions, and found nothing but a lonely rock. Peculiar... I couldn't do anything with it. Turns out, I took the lower right path. I turned around promptly. There were four items, and an inscription. I looked at the items first. Translation can always wait. A gold nugget, a rare candy, an odd incense, and a Mind plate, with text of the back. I think I'll leave the texts alone until they get interesting...  
The markings said "Friendship, All lives, Touch other, Lives to create something anew and alive." Weird. I realized I had to leave, and it was actually easier than I thought. I found the boy then talked to him. He gave nothing. Liar. Now, I had to go to the tower. I sold the gold nugget, and headed out. I bought five dusk balls with the money the shopkeeper gave me for the gold nugget. I am low on pokeballs, after all. I found a cuttable tree, and let the Bidoof temporarily be on the team for this one, and it had the TM steel wing.  
The tower was a grave for dead pokemon. How depressing. The climbed the tower, and a boy on the second floor mistook me for a ghost. This may be a graveyard, but it's a POKEMON graveyard. So I fought trainers, avoided badly-placed gravestones and climbed.

The dead.

Everywhere

Essentially, as I got higher, I got more battles and stuff. The graves also became more abundant.  
I got the TM for return, and thought about giving it to Luna, but then I realized. Could I use copycat on Fantina's pokemon to use her ghost-type moves against her? I decided to leave it be for a bit. It's be useful, considering that the only ghost-types I can catch can only evolve once, and I won't be seeing a Dark-type until I head farther north, but then the idea just came back to me.  
Pandora. COMPLETELY forgot about Pandora. I gave return to Luna. Not only will it do massive damage with her high happiness level, but it will also do TWICE the damage with the same-type-attack-bonus, or STAB. Stabbity stabbity stab stab stab!  
I think I eventually reached the top. Two old men, or old woman, I dunno. They stood in front of two graves. I spoke with them, but not before a Zubat interrupted. He just killed the mood. I got a "cleanse tag", and an HM. For what? I didn't check yet. Might as well.  
"Strength" I needed the gym badge to use it. I guess It's time to face against Fantina. Hopefully, Pandora doesn't need to return to the Underworld, where I assume all ghost types come from.


	11. Maylene

I traveled back to Hearthome city and picked up Pandora. I switched Pandora for Vatra, because she can't learn any decent fire-type moves by level up until she evolves, and that won't be until level 40.  
So me and Pandora, we trained. She was the sad one. She had confidence, and could use faith, but she loved her old trainer so much, and when he or she left her behind without her even knowing ahead of time, it was all so sudden... Or that's what she tells me, anyway.  
Cressa eventually walked up to me and asked what I was doing.  
"I'm training for Fantina."  
"Oh." She said. "Then why do you only have two gym badges?"  
"Why is that relevant?"  
"Veilstone City's the next gym location." That news nearly broke my heart. What have I been training for?  
"Well, thanks for letting me know." I said as Cressa left. Where was she going, anyway?  
I went to Solaceon City, then North. I'm sure that's where it is. I picked some Aspear, Razz, and Pinap berries. I found a great ball, dodged some trainers, and whatnot. I found Cafe Cabin, but realized what one person I came across said. Something about this place being chaotic or whatever. Speaking of which, there was a random wall of Psyducks blocking the path to the left. Very funny. I headed right, and was greeted with immediate shows. Mood swing! The rain was actually good, because it beefed up Jendoa's water type attack, currently Brine. I dodged pretty much all but one trainer. I found a few battle items, and a full heal until I found another mandatory battle. Ace trainers. This might prove interesting. Jendoa and Luna VS a Monferno and Glameow. Not too bad, although I doubt I'll OHKO them both at once. I made Jendoa use Brine on the Monferno, and Luna use Return on Glameow. The Monferno just has to go. Monferno went first, and used Mach Punch of Jendoa. That's really hurt on Luna. Jendoa reached level 35, and Pandora reached 25 in the back of the team. Thanks, experience share! The return managed to take out the Glameow. No critical hits at all. Unfortunately, a Gyarados comes out on Luna's side. Oh, god no.. I made Jendoa use Brine on the Kadabra on the Glameow's side, and switched Luna with brine managed to actually take out Kadabra, and Shox leveled up to 26. And what of the Gyarados? It uses Thrash on Jendoa. Not much. Jendoa used Pluck, and Shox used Spark on the Gyarados. What a bloodrushing battle.  
I picked a Wiki and Mago berry meanwhile.  
Veilstone City... as I walked in, I saw them. I saw them with hatred...

Team Galactic...  
I walked up to them. What do they want? They outright told me it was their warehouse. Derp. Essentially, they're just guards being guards. Someone in the way? Shove 'em out!  
That was it. Huh  
I went into the Veilstone Game corner and explored, or at least, when I could. Not now. Some random guy randomly gave me a random TM. Embargo? Useless. I finally found Dawn outside the Gym.  
"Long time no see."  
"Are you here to challenge the Gym?" She asked after saying "hi"  
"Yeah, but I'd like to explore first."  
"I went to the department store and.. well of course I'm working on the pokedex. Catch you later!"  
What? Mew got her tongue?  
I decided now was time to fight Maylene. It was Sai's time to shine. The gimmick of this gym was hintless decision, or moving? Wha? Some puzzle thing. I solved the puzzle, and decided to go heal up my team before I go after the main attraction of the gym.  
Just me and Maylene...  
"Hello. I'm pleased to meet you." She says to me.  
"You too." I reply  
"I'm Maylene, I'm the Gym Leader."  
"I know."  
"I don't really know –"  
"Can we save for speeches for AFTER someone wins?"  
"As you wish." She bows.  
She leads with Level 27 Meditite, as I lead with Level 29 Sai. I feel awfully confident about this."  
"Aerial ace!" It took out the Meditite rather fast.

Level 27 Machoke

"Aerial ace!" It lives with just less than half, and uses brick break on Sai, leaving her under half. Not good. Sai was faster, so another Aerial Ace should finish it.

Last Pokemon: Lucario... level 30.

Oh god... Lucario...

Sai had one hope: Endeavor + Quick attack. I figured I'd need it. It uses drain punch, killing Sai... No... Gone... Pandora should be able to do something, but she's very underleveled. I decided to risk using Jendoa. It was my best bet...  
Jendoa had two moves that was super-effective against the Lucario: Pluck, and Rock Smash. Pluck did 20 more damage, but Rock Smash had a chance of lowering defense. I used Pluck, because if it had much it could do I'd rush to Pluck again.  
It went for Bone Rush, it missed. Peck did about a quarter. Not enough... It went for force palm. It did a quarter, but it also paralyzed. All Jendoa needs to do is break through paralyzation and survive a hit... Lucario used Bone Rush again, but missed (again), and Jendoa broke through...  
"...Ok. You win." Maylene said. "That was a tough loss. I learned a lot from it."  
"This was a tough win to enjoy... at least I avenged Sai..."

"Is that her name?"

"Yeah.."

"I'm so sorry... You had to prove your skills, and you did it, right? Have the Gym Badge.

The Cobble Badge... Sai was Cobbled...

"Tm 60? What is it?"

"Drain Punch"

"Thank you."

I walked outside, and found Dawn complaining about Team Galactic stealing her Pokedex  
"What do they want with it?"  
"I dunno. Just meet me by the warehouse..."  
"I'll be there soon."  
I eventually did go to the warehouse, but not before a quick little chore. I returned to the old Chateau, as the ghosts had wished, as I buried Sai's body outside, and her soul roamed the house.  
"Th-th-thank you for not leaving me alone. Th-they seem to like me here" Sai's spirit said. I wrote on Sai's grave, making her an epitaph.

"_Sai, your valiant efforts protected the team until your eventual fall. You've saved Shox's life, and although you started unconfident, you became the brave soul that you are. You've accomplished things the rest of the team can't, and you were essential to the team, all the way to the better end. I couldn't have asked for a better bird Pokemon."_  
_-Syndicate_

So, who takes Sai's spot? The one and only Maverick.  
"We got a lot of training to do..."


	12. Galactic Returns

After awhile, I finally managed to evolve Jendoa, Pandora, Maverick, and Naomi. Jendoa also became the first fully-evolved Pokemon I caught so far with three evolutions, because I caught a few Unown earlier for catching sake, and Pandora reached the final evolution with Jendoa.  
Jendoa the Empoleon's personality didn't change much. He was still the brave, couragous, and powerful leader.

Pandora the Drifblim got over the loss of her old trainer, whoever they may be. Thus, more of the true Pandora showed. She was rather outgoing, although she burst into light tears every now and then.

Naomi the Roselia also became a bit more positive. Although she was still very shy, she opened up to the rest of the team besides Shox, who held a racial grudge against Budews and it's family. It was rather understandable, considering Shox was nearly poisoned to death by one. In Naomi's case, I couldn't understand why. Naomi's ability was Natural Cure, not Poison Point.

Maverick had the most negative personality of the team. Maverick was highly aggressive, and preferred offense over defense. Although, shes still understood whenever her teammates needed to take over, which is good enough for me.

It was time to help Dawn with her Pokedex. I led with Jendoa for level purposes. I didn't know what I'd be facing, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't do it. I found Dawn in front of the two Galactic members guarding the area I mentioned earlier.  
"Hi Syn! Can you please help me?" Dawn asked me.  
"What do you need me to do?" I answered  
"I need your help getting my Pokedex back, and I need you to battle with me against these losers!"  
"Alright!" About time I kicked more Team Galactic butt.  
"You and your Pokemon together with me and my Pokemon... United like this, our dream team has no chance of losing!"  
"Have faith that their plan all goes wrong, Dawn. We'll finish what they started, and it won't be the result they want!"  
We begun. Level 38 Jendoa and 25 Clefairy (Luna much?) against a Beautifly and a Dustox. I really did train a lot, didn't I?  
I used Pluck on the Dustox. That thing has access to a ridiculous number of status conditions, and it needs to go ASAP. It did more than enough to kill it. Meanwhile, Beautifly used gust on Clefairy, doing under a quarter, while Clefairy used Gravity, intensifying it, as a Croagunk replaced the Dustox. Easy enough. Pluck on Coagunk for super-effective damage. The Beautifly uses Mega drain on Clefairy. Odd. Clefairy uses sing on Beautifly. The Croagunk is out, so Jendoa is safe to switch out to Luna. The Clefairy Duo! Beautifly stayed asleep, and the other Clefairy actually managed to get a Dragon Pulse with Metronome. I took this time to set up. I used Substitute to block possible damage. The other Clefairy went with uproar, waking up the Beautifly. I then used return. Kill. Last pokemon. Stunky? Damn! I used return. Best thing I could do. It did a lot, and the other Clefairy's uproar finished the job, while Luna levels up. I replaced Magical Leaf with Metronome, for "those times". The guards returned the Pokedex and told us their plans. Oops.  
"Syn, thank you, sincerely. If Professor Rowan ever find out I lost my Pokedex..."  
"You can have mine. I don't plan on finishing it. I was just dragged into this project."  
"That's sweet, but no. And if he finds out... Eewww.. I don't want to think about it." I knew there was something wrong with Professor Rowan. "So, Syn, what're you going to do now?"  
"I plan to head to Pastoria City, Teach Luna Cosmic Power, and become the Pokemon League Champion. Or, at least the first two are my newest goals."  
"I'm think of going to Pastoria City right now."  
"I'll stay here and check out their warehouse. I'll meet up with you soon."  
"Bye, Syndicate." The Galactic building was just up there... There was a member in there. I can deal with him. I got them HM for fly. It'll prove very useful. I gave it to Maverick in exchange for Wing Attack. He seemed pretty happy about it, because Fly had a base power 30 higher than Wing Attack. There was also a Team Galactic HQ. I tried to take a peek inside. It was surprisingly calm for such a place. There were three doors, the leftern and middle ones leading to the same place, but the right door had teleporters. Science testing! It did absolutely nothing. Damned slacking scientists.  
I eventually did reach Pastoria City. I was able to pick a boatload of berries, but that path wasn't too notable. The only thing worth mentioning was the random rain and Pokemon Mansion. I found the move tutor, and found a man. He taught Cosmic Power, a move that raises the user's defensive stats by 1 stage per use, to Luna, and Cross-Poison, a poison-type attack, that does 70 damage and had a high chance for a critical hit, to Maverick. I had to sacrifice Encore and Leech Life, but it was well worth it. I went into the Safari zone, and caught me a Marill. I named it "Cake".  
The Gym leader in this town specialized in water-type Pokemon. Thus, I had to use Shox for this. I could make a back-up plan, so I did. See, Naomi can learn "Giga Drain", which is, in my opinion, the strongest Grass-Type move known to man and Pokemon alike. So, what it does is it does 75 points of damage, five points less than the average high-level, 100% accuracy attacks with no penalty. However, Giga Drain, with that namesake, takes half of the damage taken by the opponent, and uses it to heal the user. Not only that, but with STAB, it does twice the damage, dealing 150 points of damage to the opponent. Dayum. That is one deadly Rose. In other words, Naomi is my back-up plan if Shox dies.  
Even if Shox does die, he accomplished way too much. You see, I left Shox and Vatra alone for awhile. You remember Vatra, right? Fire pony? Well, when I came back, there were two odd Pokemon next to them. One female, the other male. They were striped horses with electric powers. I think Vatra wanted to breed with Shox. Shox told me they were a new species, and called them "Blitzle". I didn't understand the name.  
"If they evolve, I'll call them 'Zebstrika'." It only made sense. "There's just one problem."  
"What?" Vatra asked. "What's wrong with the babies?"  
"Sinnoh doesn't exactly like new species of Pokemon that aren't shipped here."  
"What? Are you saying you have to kill them?" Vatra looked scared."  
"They'll be alive. You just won't see them for over five years. We need to teach them how to live in the wild." So, the Blitzle learned, and Vatra was satisfied. Vatra rested his head against his babies. Usually, the male was strict about their safety, and the female was the one who wanted them to be as happy and alive as possible. Here, it was the opposite. Vatra said goodbye, and Shox lowered her head.  
"They're going to this place called Unova. My older cousin, Juniper, can take them in. If you guys make it, I promise we'll go to see them."  
Irrelevant stories aside, I decided to go train Naomi. The level I needed to reach was 43 in order to learn the moves she needs to learn before she becomes a Roserade.  
After training for awhile, I returned to the Pokemon Mansion, and found the owner's room. I went inside.  
"Hello, hello, welcome to my opulent mansion!" Mr Backlot, the owner. Said. "There's a lot for me to be proud of here, but what makes my most proud is my garden out back!" Oh, It's be a real shame is someone were to burn it... Rich snob... Nothing interesting besides a TM for Swagger. I think Naomi already has plenty of it. Bad jokes aside, I explored his "garden" it was just a boring patch of grass. He said there were Pokemon that appeared nowhere else, so I decided to train there for a bit. I found a Pikachu eventually. It was too cute to pass up, so I tried to catch it. I called it "Sparklez".


	13. Crasher Wake

I realized that if I was going to beat the Pastoria City Gym leader, Crasher Wake, Shox, my main hope, was going to need to train. Thus, I decided to train him until level 33.  
After reaching level 30, Shox evolved for the last time. Luxray... I never would have expected the fun-loving Shinx to be the same Pokemon. Shox was cool, serious, and calm. She was not afraid to show her soft side, though  
"What would Sai think?" Shox asked me.  
"She would be proud."  
"I know that she wouldn't want me to die..."  
"She wants us to win more than anything. It was her final wish. I was there..." Suddenly, short flashback.  
"I want you to finish what we started. All of us. We all play a part, including the Bidoof. Don't tell anyone else until the time is right..." Those were her last words...  
After reaching the desired level, it was time to challenge the Water-Type Gym Leader, Crasher Wake. The gimmick here was that buttons you pressed could make the water level rise and lower, changing the way you traverse the gym, because the gym was not leveled, and there were floating logs around the place. Getting past Wake's trainee's was easy. Solving the puzzle required strategy, which was not my favorite game genre.

Eventually, I reached him. The fourth Gym Leader.  
"Welcome! I don't get challenge very often!" He said. "The glory you are now beholding is the Pastoria Gym Leader. That's right, I'm Crasher Wake! My pokemon were tougened up by stormy white waters!" I drowned him out after that.  
His first Pokemon may be the strongest statwise, but it also has a 4 times weakness to electricity. On the down side, Gyarados's intimidate lowered Shox's attack stat. That IS his best stat, after all. I went for Spark, because I still don't have a better electric type move. The Gyarados didn't even move. In case you were wondering what they looked like, take the red thing from earlier and make it blue. Quagsire was his next option. I COMEPLETLEY forgot about the thing. See, Quagsire is ground type, so electric type attacks can't touch it. Therefore, I had to go into Naomi. Naomi was five levels higher, but there was still worry. I set up toxic spikes for his final pokemon, Buizel. It went for mud bomb, doing little, but also lowering Naomi accuracy. Fortunately for me, Naomi still had Magical leaf, which never misses. Nevertheless, I tried my luck with Giga Drain. Misses. It does for tail whip, lowering defenses. I have to go for Magical Leaf. It finishes it. Now for the grand finale... I switched for Shox. The Floatzel was poisoned by toxic spikes, and Wake compliments me. How nice of him. I go for spark, but not before he uses swift. Shox has won.

"I had a great time battling with you! You've earned this!" Wake exclaimed. Yay, badge! Fen badge? What does "Fen" mean? He also gave me TM55, or Brine. Jendoa learned that by level up before I challenged the LAST gym leader. I found a Team Galactic member talking to himself about his plans in the open. What a noob.. He said he was delivering something to the Lake, and told me no to follow him. Time to follow him!


	14. Trouble at Lake Valor

I was ready to go and check out what they were doing, but not before I healed my Pokemon. Safety first! Justice can wait. I found him standing outside the path to Lake Valor.  
"Gweh!" He yelled. Gweh? "Persistent pest!"  
"You're half right. I sure am persistent!" I replied  
"If our plan works, our boss's dream comes closer to fruition!" Who says that? "Our boss's ideal world is going to be created! So, I'm not going to waste my time on a nobody like you!"  
"Would a nobody defeat two of your admins?" I smirked.  
"I'm telling you now, don't you come chasing after me." Fine. I'll come WALKING after you. Trent then comes out of nowhere.  
"Whoops!" Clumsy Trent, you.. "Hehehe. I'm not always going to plow into you every time we meet!" That'd certainly be a first. I can recall once where Trent walked up to me without falling over.  
"So, how's it going, Syn? Buffing up your Pokemon, eh?"  
"More than you'd image." Jendoa almost level forty. What about you?"  
"Let's find out!" The battle begins!... Again! Me vs. Trent. He starts with Starly, and I start with Shox. What a match-up. Why does he have a Starly now, anyways? Earlier move learning? It was an easy kill for Shox. Then, Ponyta, or Vatra wannabe. I switch to Jendoa. Ezpz, my dad would say. Brine easily took it out. Grotle, or Turtwig's evolution. I really did train hard, didn't I? I switched to Maverick for level fairness. I felt bad for the kid. Cross poison was an easy kill, although Grotle was 4 levels higher. Maverick, you... uhm... Maverick. Buizel. Final pokemon, and he hasn't even moved yet. I went with Shox to just finish the job.

"What just happened?! Are you telling me I lost!?" Trent raged. He blamed his carelessness. Whatever. "So, what was that guy freaking out about?"  
"Oh, some ultimate weapon of mass destruction and not following him. No big deal." I answered. Sarcasm at it's finest, ladies and gentlemen.  
"If your not a Pokemon, and you run away like that... You're a bad guy." What, is he racist against humans and saying that Pokemon is the master race?  
"We're all equal here, Trent."  
"Next time, I'm not holding back!" He left. Hopefully, he won't be weak as heck next time we meet. And I don't fall over in the process. This was a route, and I found berries. Luna has never been happier until this point. I found a rock, and smashed it, because Jendoa still has that move. Just some honey tree. Meh. There was also a house about footsteps. I checked it out.

"Pokemon are quite easy for me to read. I need only see their footprints, and their innermost thoughts are revealed to me!" Dr. Footsteps said. Or, that's what he called himself, anyway.  
"Oh, you are skeptical of my claim?"  
"Prove me wrong, and you right." I answered simply.  
"Then let your Luxray walk in front of me, right here."  
"Steal him, and you're a dead man."  
"From it's footprints, I will determine how it feels about you." About me? You're kidding, right? He says something about love and compassion whatever. I can speak to pokemon, and prove him wrong. I showed him Naomi. Same thing as Shox, only weaker. He's a liar. Naomi just barely trusts me. Lastly, I show him Pandora. He says something about being new or whatever. The guy is pretty stupid. Drifblim don't HAVE footprints. He says that he acknowledges the lack of footprints, and says it makes it hard, but really, he needs FOOTPRINTS to know that they're thinking, so it should be IMPOSSIBLE. I found a TM for Aerial Ace. That was Sai's last move.  
I found the Galactic noob again.  
"We need the energy from the Valley Windwor–"  
"Shhh... Say no more." I was tired of him being so stupid.  
"Graw! You were eavesdropping!" Graw? "I'm getting tired of running. But I'm not going to waste my energy knocking you around..."  
"Because you can't?"  
"No.. because you're. Uhh.. You're not worth it!" So he runs again. I thought he said we was tired of it. I find a hotel. I love exploring. Why not? I found a sorta emo kid predicting my future.  
"A magical encounter is in the winds... Though I cannot tell whether it me Pokemon or a Trainer." Hopefully, he is correct. I also got TM92 for a random clown. Trick room. Maybe if I had a slow Pokemon, I'd use it.  
The hotel was really fancy. I even found a guy who called himself the "Game Developer". This is my story, developer. Don't break the fourth wall, okay? I found the Galactic noob again. Why here?  
"Pant... Pant..." He says "Why am I running like this anyway?! Gweh! Stop that!" Gweh? "I'm pooped out from all the running..."  
"Heh." I said. "You said poop in a fancy hotel." He runs, and still refuses a battle. I found him again, by the forest.  
"Aw, no. You're still on my tail?" He asks.  
"Of course." I reply.  
"The lake's within sight... You leave me no choice. My pokemon will KO you. Thus, we battle. He has only one Pokemon, a Glameow. Do you even battle?

I send out Jendoa, and go for Steel Wing. Easy kill.  
"I can't battle anymore. I'm running on fumes... I'll have to give this to the Commander."  
"What?" I ask. A commander? Here? Now? Then, I find a blonde woman in black. Cynthia. She said something about island in lake, and it's actually a mirage, and no one must enter the chamber of it. Then, she asks about the crazy Psyduck from earlier. She gives me a "Secret Potion." What if I were to drink it? Not worth it. Don't play what you don't know anything about. I continued on to the route. After Cynthia appears, nothing much happened. The lake was blocked off, and the northern path only led my back to Veilstone City. Guess I'm going to Celestic town, which is the area the Psyducks were at. I flew with Maverick to Hearthome to see if Fantina was back. Nope. I headed to the previously mention Milk Shop. I used the potion on them.  
They all walked away, but one of them had to be directionally blind. Cynthia also showed up for no particular reason.  
"Oh, good." She said. "You used the potion I gave you."  
"I kinda had no other choice." I answered simply. Where else would I go? Home?  
"Psyduck are known to suffer from chronic headaches, but no one's been able to figure out what triggers them. Oh, yes!" She changed the subject as quickly as she showed up. "Can I ask you a big favor?"  
"Sure, I guess. What?"  
"I want you to deliver this old charm to my grandma is Celestic Town." She's still alive? You'd think the grandmother of someone who looks 22 to be dead. Then again, crazy stuff can happen. "I know there are some rare Pokemon on the way there, so it'd be worth you're while to go."  
"Alright. I got nothing better to do right now."  
"Bye!" She left. Hopefully, this is as easy as I think it will.


	15. The Old Charm

I continued on, adventuring and all. The path here had lots of tall grass. LOTS of tall grass. I just walked around, because I had no clue where I needed to go. I eventually did find the path, which was a path of trees. The path eventually got really foggy. No big deal, that is until I realized that the fog made battles much more luck-based, because it lowered Pokemon's accuracy. I decided to lead with Naomi for Magical Leaf. Immediately after, a Ponyta. If only Sai was still here.. She could use Aerial Ace on everyone here. I flew back to Solaceon because of a scare with Naomi. That was just unfair.  
This may just be the scariest route I've been on yet. Not only was Naomi my only guarantee, plenty of the trainers' Pokemon were strong against grass. I kept hoping for it to end, but it just went on, and on, and on. I had the HM for defog, but that would mean wasting a perfectly good move slot. Fortunately, I found the TM for Shadow Ball, arguably the greatest ghost-type move out there. The place was risky as hell, it annoyed me so much, and Naomi's getting put into so much risk. I found a kid with a Croagunk, switched to Maverick, and he's nearly dead, but Pandora saved his life. I can't stand this. This place is insane. If I linger too long, someone will die. I decided there was only one way to win, and that's to defeat trainers one by one, and go back if anyone takes ANY damage. Eventually, I made it. Celestic Town...  
"There's an odd spaceman in front of the ruins" a voice said. Huh? "There isn't anything there, but that only seemed to make him get angry. He's saying he'll blow the town up with a bomb... The nerve of it all... If only I were younger, I'd punish that spaceman with my pokemon..." It was some old lady. Was it Deoxys? My friend from Hoenn got to see it, and I was so jealous. There were ruins, and a Team Galactic member.  
"This town is insignificant! There's nothing of value here. It doesn't need to exist, so I'll blow it up with a Galactic Bomb!" He said.  
"First of all, you nicknamed your bombs, and second, you said yourself that nothing was here, so you decided to blow it all up? What a waste of ammo." I said.  
"If you mess with me, I'll shut you down."  
"Try me."  
"You dare to oppose Team Galactic?"

.

..

...

"Yes."  
"That means you're taking on the world... No, the universe, even!"  
"Even if Cyrus has taken existence over, I'll still stand side-by-side with me friends. If I die, then so be it!" and we begun. Naomi vs Beautify. I really should remember to switch leads... I switched to Jendoa while my opponent uses gust. Good switch, because Jendoa took a grand total of three damage.  
"Steel wing!, go!" the Beautifly goes down. Next, Croagunk. A bit harder, but no dice. I switch to Maverick, and go for fly as it uses revenge, but misses because Maverick's in the sky. Croagunk does down, and I get pokedollars.  
"Too much to handle..." The member says. "I can't do anything here... This place is nothing! I'll be happily rid of this place!" and he runs like a coward.  
"Oh, you were magnificent! Aren't you quite the trainer?" The lady compliments me.  
"Thanks?" I say, rather confused.  
"As the elder of Celestic Town, I give you my thanks." Elder? Didn't Cynthia say her grandmother was the elder of Celestic Town?  
"I have something for you. It's from Cynthia." I gave her the charm.  
"... What's that?" She asks. What happened now? "You say Cynthia entrusted you with it to deliver to me?'

"Indeed."

"This charm was made in honor of a mythical deity said to have created Sinnoh."  
"What, just Sinnoh?"  
"I believe so. Why don't you check out the ruins, since you're here?" Adventure awaits! Woo! I led with Jendoa, and headed into the ruins. It was a pathway with three figures etched into the wall in a triangular pattern with something in the middle. A sphere? The woman walked up to me, and told me about the history between it.  
"There existed a being so powerful, it was considered a deity at the time. Opposing this powerful being were three Pokemon. The three kept balance with the being, as if they formed a triangle. It's an ancient legend of Sinnoh that is still told is Celestic Town.  
"Oh, yes. I found something useful. You should take it." She gave me HM03, or surf. Yeah! I love this move! I taught it to Jendoa in exchange for Brine. Then, I saw a man on the way out.  
"There appears to have been an insignificant struggle here." The man said.  
"C-Cyrus?" I stutterer. Then, I burst out laughing. For the leader of the whole evil group, he has a really funny haircut.  
"Everyone should step back and view things from a bigger perspective. Yes, a bigger perspective, one that is on a universal scale."  
"What's you're point, spikeface?" I gave Cyrus a nickname.  
"I am the leader of Team Galactic, and seek the power to create a new world, a world without strife."  
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on, spikeface. I need a minute. I pulled out a dictionary  
"_Strife, n. Conflict, sometimes violent, usually brief or limited in scope."_  
"Sorry, spikeface. There will always be conflict, even in a minor scale.  
"The power isn't here..." Is he a robot? He didn't even get mad at me, and I just won the argument before anyone started yelling. "We've met before, yes? It was at Mount Coronet." He asked me. Have we?  
"No, I don't believe we even saw each other face-to-face."  
"If you discover any power derived from the legends of Sinnoh, inform me."  
"What makes you think I would!?" I asked. Is he really THAT stupid? He then just walked away.


	16. Fantina

I heard that Fantina, the Hearthome City Gym Leader, was back in town. Now, I'm sure I mentioned that Pandora would be my only hope to beat her? Turns out that Shox still knows "Bite", which is a dark-type move. It's not exactly common sense, but Dark is super-effective against ghost, while a ghost-to-ghost battle is a tradeoff, meaning that while a ghost-type move is super-effective against ghosts, it's the same for you if you are a ghost. Not only is Shox NOT a ghost, she's also four levels higher than Pandora. I decided the best thing to do was to train her one extra level. Turns out, when Shox reached 35, he could learn crunch, which is essentially bite, but it does 20 more damage. It's flinch side-effect is replaced with a chance of defense lowering, however. Luxray's best stats are attack, so it was a good replace. Naomi also leveled up in the same battle and could learn toxic. Personally, I think Toxic Spikes was a much better alternative. It won't poison the current Pokemon, but it could potentially poison the rest of the team. Also, Toxic Spikes won't miss. Sorry, but no thanks.  
I figured that since I was here, I'd train Luna. She was probably the only other Pokemon who matched Jendoa's potential, and I wanted her to live up to it as much as possible.  
I decided to use the Drain Punch TM on Luna in exchange for metronome, because she was having way too much trouble with Pokemon that resist her only real attack.  
After reaching level 33, I looked at my team.

Jendoa: Level 41.

Moveset: Steel Wing, Rock Smash, Surf, Pluck

Pandora: Level 30

Moveset: Gust, Spit Up, Payback, Stockpile

Shox: Level 35

Moveset: Spark, Strength, Charge, Crunch

Maverick: Level 29

Moveset: Cross Poison, Confuse Ray, Fly, Bite

Luna: Level 33

Moveset: Cosmic Power, Drain Punch, Substitute, Return

Naomi: Level 38

Moveset: Giga Drain, Toxic Spikes, Magical Leaf, Leech Seed.

Not too bad. Hopefully, I can lead my team in and out, victorious, and with no deaths, which is highly unlikely, because all of them are still under the effects of what I call "Shuckle's Shield", or their ability to die twice. Shuckle is THE most defensive Pokemon ever. Really. Also, Jendoa is the only male in the entire team right now. Really. I set Shox as my lead, and headed inside the gym.  
The gym started with a wooden elevator with no safety things anywhere. Surprised nobody's come to force this place to be remodeled. At the top, was a path. A sign in three doors. Ooh! Choices! Unfortunately, it was just boring old math. It was a multiple choice question, and the doors were like the bubbles.  
"3 + 5 + 7 is what?" The sign said. "Left is 2, Middle is 16, Right is 15." To avoid boring you, I went into the right door, fifteen.  
"Correct!" The a sign on the other side of the door said. There was another unsafe elevator behind it. Were they on a budget or something? So, I just answered more math questions. Eventually, I reached Fantina.  
"It's time! Where have you been all this time?" She did a twirl. Really?  
"Finally, you have arrived! Since I came to this country, always I try to learn new things. They hold contests in this city? I say to myself, enfin. I will excel." I droned her out after enfin. What is that supposed to mean? At least I have an idea of where she was. We begun. I led with Shox, and she led with a Drifblim. Hello, Pandora's cousin! I went with the obvious move: Crunch. I didn't want to mess around. Shox outleveled her Driflim, but only by three. It lived with minimal HP, and got a defense drop. It used astonish, doing barely anything to Shox. Fantina used a Hyper Potion. Way to waste an item, Fantina. The Drifblim fell, but not before it's ability, aftermath, did decent damage to Shox. Not much, but more than double Astonish. Then, Mismagius. What a majestic Pokemon. Shox went for Crunch.  
"Take that!" She said. The Mismagius went first, using magical leaf. Shox is now under half. Then, Gengar. My god... I switched out. Shox was taking too much punishment. I went with Jendoa. Any poison-type move it'd go for will fail because of Jendoa's steel properties. Jendoa was level 41, and Gengar was 34, so I felt confident, although I had that spark of fear deep inside me. Gengar is a VERY, VERY good Pokemon. I went with Surf.  
"Alright, Syndicate. I trust you..." Jendoa said. Gengar went first and used Spite, but it failed. What does that even do again? Gengar lived with very little health points left. The fear inside me was starting to burst. I went with Pluck, because if it had a berry, and did damage to Jendoa, Jendoa would heal. Even then, it should be enough to kill. Hyper Potion. Great. I went with surf, but Gengar still had one last turn to live. What would it do? Shadow Claw. Jendoa resisted it, Gengar fainted, and the fear in my heart was put out.  
"I am dumbfounded!" Fantina yelled. "So very, very strong! You, your Pokemon, So strong! Your power is admirable! I shall honor it with this Gym Badge."  
"Yeah, I'll kinda need that for stuff and things." The Relic Badge! Yeah!"  
"Here, you can make use of this Technical Machine. That is what I think." It's TM65!... uh...  
"That TM65... It contains Shadow Claw." Fantina answered my rather obvious confusion. I won't need that TM any time soon. I got out of the Gym. I found Cynthia just outside.  
"I'm so glad to see you!" She said."You're not that very easy to track down. My grandma told me about what happened in Celestic Town. Thanks for what happened in the ruins!"  
"You are very welcome."  
"But, that Team Galactic... I thought they were just an eccentric bunch of freaks."  
"They are." I joked.  
"You know talking about a new universe or something, and the dumb way they dress, too. It appears they are more trouble than I thought... I mean, stealing and hoarding Pokemon." Stealing? I clutched tight on Luna's pokeball for the rest of the conversation. "By the way, did you find the ruins interesting at all?"  
"Yeah." I answered.  
"You should check out the library in Canalave City." Cynthia recommended. "They have some old books you may find interesting. Bye-bye for now!"


	17. Battle at the Bridge

Thus, I begun to head toward Canalave, because Cynthia suggested it. It was east of Jubilife. Haven't been there for awhile. I flew on Maverick to Jubilife and heal up before I headed there. Rumor has it that Canalave City has a stone that is said to either evolve Naomi, or Luna, and there was a gym there. That second one was a fact, not a rumor. I surfed on Jendoa, because someone was too lazy to finish building the bridge. I picked a Rawst, Persim, Figy, and two Pinap berries. I found the pathway, and a scientist guy talked to me.  
"Syn, long time, no see!" He said.  
"Do I know you...?" I asked.  
"I am Professor Rowan's assistant and Dawn's father." Oh, right. I've only seen him once."  
"Are you just saying hi, or is there something you need to deliver?"  
"The professor asked that I upgrade your Pokedex, you see."  
"Yeaaaah, I'm not trying to catch them all."  
"Don't tell him, okay?"  
"Fine."  
"All right. All done! Now it can display imaged of male and female pokemon."  
"Why wasn't that in the original?"  
"Rowan's an idiot. Don't tell him." He left me. I also saw a police guard saying "Boy, I sure am thirsty".  
"I have a few Sodas."  
"No, no.. I need water"  
"Jendoa has plenty, but he isn't one to share with strangers."  
I entered Canalave. Too easy. The entrance wasn't of much interest besides a dock, and a woman with TM48, or, according to her, Skill Swap. Meh. With five badges, I could buy a hyper potion. It was somewhat expensive, at twelve hundred pokedollars, but I had one-hundred and forty-nine thousand and six-hundred and two. I bought four because I had one, making an even number of five. Yes, I know it's an odd number, but it's even, such as 1, 3, 5, 10, 50, 100, ect. It's just odd numbers during the first digits. I also found the move deleter, who deleted Rock Smash from Jendoa. If I ever have any rocks that need smashing, I can just re-teach it. I still had the TM for stealth rock, and everyone knows that the more entry hazards, the better!  
I also found an old hotel with faded texts near the bottom of it's sign, and the door was nearly impossible to open. Then, I crossed a bridge, and Trent came over. He ran into me. He didn't bump into me, but the absolute randomness of his appearance made me fall off the bike.

"Whoops! Hey, Syn!" Trent greeted.  
"Hello, Trent." I greeted with a disappointed smile.  
"You're going to challenge the Gym Leader up past here, eh?"  
"I'll need some training first, but yes"  
"Someone should check to see if you're ready for this challenge!"  
"I'm sure I'm qualified enough, but you're on."  
"Hah! I got the gym badge!" Phooey. He's beaten the gym leaders before me, one by one. At least I can stop to smell the roses, while Trent is running willy-nilly with his Pokemon. I'll show him. He had a team of five. Much more respectable than last time we met. His Starly was now a Staravia, but it also had to go up against Shox.  
"Shox, use Spark!" I told Shox.  
"Staravia! Counter it with a quick attack!", Trent commanded It did ten damage.  
"Staravia, return! Go, Ponyta!" Trent said.  
"Shox, return! Take it, Jendoa!" The Ponyta couldn't do much to Jendoa. Even is Jendoa is part steel, the water properties counter it just nicely. I set up two stealth rocks. On the first set up, Ponyta used tail whip, lowering Jendoa's defense, and the second had a take down. Turns out, in this region, stealth rocks only had one layers. I don't remember that, but meh. Jendoa used Pluck, for berry chance. Nothing. The ponyta used stomp. Jendoa was at 97/137. Just fine.  
"Surf it away, Jendoa!"  
"Take it, Ponyta!" Nope. It didn't make it. "Heracross, go!" Ooh. Heracross? That'd really hurt.  
"Jendoa, come back! Do it, Maverick!". The levels were interesting. Heracross was a level higher, but it also took the Stealth Rock damage, and it had a two-times weakness to flying, and Maverick knew fly. Now, just don't miss. Maverick has a 5% chance to fail with Fly. Let's hope that doesn't happen. It went for brick break, but Maverick was flying. The fly hit, and Heracross fainted. Meanwhile, Naomi leveled up. Thanks, experience share! Then came Grotle. I figured that Naomi needed some spotlight time.  
"Naomi! Finish the job!" I went for Leech Seed, for purposes. I always forget that you can't leech seed grass-types.  
"Giga drain! Get back that health the Grotle took away from you, and threw out!" It wasn't very effective, but did almost half.  
"Hit it again!" It did less than last time. Odd. Eventually we reached a point where the fastest would win. That'd be Naomi, of course. That Grotle wasn't coming back any time soon.  
One last challenge: Floatzel. I felt as Naomi could do this one. Naomi, surprisingly, went first. The Giga Drain ended the battle as quickly as it started.  
"Yeah, yeah, you're just a bit better than me, as usual." Trent admitted.  
"How did you know?" I asked sarcastically.  
"But listen up! Let me tell you who's going to take on the Pokemon League and become the Champion."  
"Oh, I'm so honored to hear you say that. I don't need you cheering on my side, though."  
"No, you idiot! It's going to be me! Anyways, you should be able to take the Gym Leader here. Hurry up and go make the challenge!"  
"Whatever you say." and he runs off. How much energy does he have? I found a Sailors house, and went in. Nothing of interest. I went into the Library. Nothing interesting in the first floor. Just Twilight and whatnot. The second wasn't as good either. The third second was the kid's section. Ironically, it's also got history and mythology. One story was  
_ "Betray not your anger, lest ? will come. Weep not with sorrow, or ? will draw near._  
_ When joy and enjoyment come natural as the very air, that is happiness. Let such me blessed by the hand of Master ?" _The ? parts where covered in dirt, and I couldn't rub it off. I feel as if the first two were Giratina, and the last one was Arceus. Thre were others like it, but my favorite was "A Horrific Myth" This one, I know nothing of.  
_ "Look not into the Pokemon's eyes. In but an instant, you'll have no recollection of who you are. Return home, but how, when there is nothing to remember? Dare not touch the Pokemon's body. In but three short days, all emotions will drain away. Above all, above all, harm not the Pokemon. In a scant five days, the offender will grow immobile in entirety."_  
I liked this one, but not because of it's dark tale. I didn't know what Pokemon the story spoke of. That wasn't even the most interesting part. The story said to not touch the Pokemon, or lose all emotions in less than a week. Cyrus had no emotions. What has he touched? If he did touch it, he is related to the Pokemon, but which one? It was either Giratina, or Arceus. That's all I know.


	18. Byron

I trained Luna, and found a moonstone. See, the gym specialized in steel-type. Best thing I got is Luna's drain punch and Jendoa. I evolved her into a Clefable, and headed inside.  
I led with Jendoa, because Drain Punch had very little PP, and I gave the two PP ups I already had I gave to Naomi and her Giga Drain. Naomi also leveled up VERY fast. In fact, she was level 41 when I reached Canalave City nearly an hour and a half ago.  
The gimmick in this gym is elevators. Only one elevator leads to the correct path. Ironically, I saw more Onix than Steelix. In fact, I only ran into two Steelix and the rest were Onix, making it more of an improved version of Roarks gym. Remember that guy? I barely do. Instead of Luna, I ended up using Naomi more in the background.  
I actually ran into an Ace Trainer somewhere in there with an Azumarill. Last time I checked, they weren't Rock OR Steel, or even look close to them. I found an elevator with a red outlite rather than yellow. Obviously, it's special. Where'd it lead? The top of the gym, with Byron.  
"So, we meet, don't we? Lemme guess? Some hyperactive kid called Trent threw your gym to pieces and took your badge before you could figure out what had happen?"  
"Yes... Wait, is... That's the Oreburgh Gym Badge!" Byron said. I knew there was a relation between the two gyms. "I see, I see. You've defeated my son."  
"You must be proud for you both to be gym leaders. Where's the mother?"  
"To hell if I know. She said she was getting groceries and never came back."  
"Tragic."  
"Back on topic, that really is no surprise. He has much to learn." Byron continued on.  
"I guess this'll just make this battle all the more special."  
"Indeed. In place of my son Roark, I, Byron, will take your challenge!" And we begun.  
I led with Jendoa, and he led with Bronzor, one of the most defensive Pokemon ever. I went with Surf, to deal nice damage. Jendoa was good, but not good enough to OHKO a Bronzor, It went with Hypnosis, and actually hit. Well, that sucks. I tried to surf again. Byron used a hyper potion, and Jendoa was still asleep. Again! Jendoa woke up. Unsurprisingly, same damage. The Bronzor went with Confuse ray. One this thing is dead, I can switch out. Steelix. Hopefully, Naomi can do a number on this thing, because Steelix is also part ground. I started with a Leech Seed. Toxic spikes would do nothing, because Steel was immune to poison. A sandstorm came out, but the Leech seed countered it. Petal Dance, for guarantees. Didn't need to waste a giga drain. The Steelix lived with very little, and a dragon-breath paralyzed Naomi. Hyper potion, and bypass the thing. Unfortunately, Petal dance had ended, and Naomi was now also confused. The Leech Seed, fortunately, will finish the Steelix.  
"Jendoa, take Naomi's place!"  
"Whatever you say, I will do it. If we are going to get through this, we'll have to listen to you." Jendoa said. Pretty much. Confusion also wears off after switching out, so it was a great idea, but then I thought. Luna could do it... I went with her instead.  
"Yeah! We can take these guys head-to-head!" Luna yelled. I'm proud of her. The steelix went with Ice Fang, which, might I add, he should've used earlier. The Leech Seed indeed killed the Steelix, and Luna reached level 39. I could've sworn she was 37 when I entered the gym. The last opponent: Bastiodon, the defensive counter-part to Cranidos, the evolution of that one thing that killed Sai the first time. Dinosaur. I stayed in. Drain Punch would do four as much damage, with Bastiodon's Rock-Steel typing.  
It got interesting. Bastiodon was also the same level as Luna. I believe in Luna... I know she can do it... I go for cosmic power. Best to stay defensive on a defensive Pokemon so they can't do anything to you. It does for Iron Defense. Guess we are playing that game, are we? I went for Drain Punch before it can set up another. I only had five. It did less than a quarter. Time to maximize my defense! I realized that will will get boring very quickly. I eventually Maximized my defenses. If I can drain the thing from PP, I'll be all right. I decided to use Drain Punch. As if it'd do anything now. It knew rest. Well, damn. Spamming it's PP was really my only hope. Oh, and hitting it during rest. That helps. Then, I remembered.  
"Leppa berries..." I have plenty of them. With those. I can use Drain Punch all I want. The Bastiodon was actually pretty much dead. I've written it's destiny, and that death. Luna's new move, Moonlight, is a bit more practical than it's Rest. If it can get any significant damage off me, Luna always does more, and Moonlight will just raise it back up. I got really bored, so when it used rest again, I switched back into Jendoa. It's defense was not rediculously high, not special defense, and Jendoa had plenty of PP for surf left.  
"Jendoa! Take this as a free-switch in!" Jendoa actually had seven surfs left. One did over half, but it lived. I was able to finish it before it could wake up, and the dramatic critical hit was nice.  
"You were strong enough to take down my prized team of Pokemon. In recognition of that power, I give you this: the Mine Badge!" Byron said.  
"You were pretty good too." I complimented him.  
"You now have six Gym Badges. Take this, too!" TM91, or  
"Flash Cannon." Byron said. I gave it to Jendoa. He's had Steel Wing too long.  
I met up with Trent outside the gym. Not just outside, it was as if his face was smushed into the door.  
"Gwaah!" I yelled. I had fallen backwards from surprise.  
"Hey! That's the Mine Badge! Good going! You're tough enough to consider becoming the Pokemon Champ." Trent said.  
"Lemme Guess.. I said as I put my TMs and HMs back into my bag. I was walking as I gave the TM to Jendoa. "You want to try to beat the champion?"  
"I'm tougher, so yes, it's not going to actually happen."  
"What, did you forget who beat you in that battle only an hour ago?"  
"Anyways," Trent rolled his eyes. "Come with me to the library."  
"I was just there, idiot. Are you sad about some book or whatever? Someone died?" He just rushed off. I hate that boy sometimes...


	19. Trent's Tale of Trouble

I really didn't need to do this, did I? What could he possibly want? I found trent on the third floor.  
"Hey, Syn! Over here! This way!" Trent told me. I follows him. We were at a table, with Dawn and Rowan. "Okay, gramps! I brought Syn like I said! I'll be outta here!" Trent jumped up from his seat, and Rowan looked disapproving. "Okay, I get it..." He got seated.  
"Hm! Everyone's here, finally. Syn, everyone, listen!", Rowan said. "You may have forgotten already, but I study the evolution of Pokemon." I shot my hand straight up into the air. "Syn, what is it?"  
"Yes, um.. Well how the HECK DOES STUDYING EVOLUTION RELEVANT TO SOMETHING SO IMPORTANT YOU HAD TO GET TRENT TO DRAG ME HERE?!" I yelled. Nobody seemed to care. The Librarian would normally kick me out, but she understood. Rowan continued on. Unfortunately, it wasn't relevant.  
"The more I study, the more mysteries appear and multiply."  
"That's how -ology works." I said.  
"Pokemon that evolve, and those that don't... What makes them different from each other?"  
"I dunno. What about complete coincidence?"  
"Too easy." I just fell asleep until he said something interesting. He didn't say anything, but I did wake up. An earthquake! Rowan suggested to go outside, because that's what EVERYONE does during an earthquake. Rowan never realized I went to sleep, but Dawn did. I had a note saying "Lake Valor". Great. She also winked at me, signifying she made the note.. I think.  
"That tremor... It wasn't a natural occurrence." Rowan said. A sailor then appeared and pointed out the obvious, calling Rowan "old man". Highlight of my day, right there.  
"They're saying there was a huge explosion at Lake Valor!" And then, another explosion. "Like that!" and he ran off.  
"Gramps, I'm going to the lake! I have a bad feeling about this!" Trent said.  
"Screw you, Trent! Valor is my target! You have another lake to deal with!" Trent ran off, and Rowan looked scared.  
"That Trent... Cant sit still..." Rowan said.  
"Like I needed the hint." I said.  
"Go, Syn. We'll meet up with you soon."  
"...Syn, you'll be okay, won't you?" Dawn asked.

"I can't make any guarantees.

Wait a second... Lake Valor? I was there, and Team Galactic.. Too late. I already flew to Pastoria. I went into the Hotel, and towards the lake. The guards from earlier were gone. The Lake was empty. Just team galactic members and a slew of Magikarp. Didn't Team Rocket try this is Johto nearly five years ago? It was actually saddening. I found a member in front of a wall of Magikarp.  
"Even Team Galactic has no use for Magikarp! Worthless, all of them!" She said.  
"I dunno. Have you ever heard of Gyarados?"  
"What?" I continued on. It was the Galactic Bomb. They seriously used it on a lake?  
I eventually found a cave. Guess that's my destination.. The Galactic members gave away their plans. One even said that they'd take the legendary Pokemon to their HQ. Are they recruiting anyone?  
"So, we meet again, spike-face." Cyrus was back, and in the cave. It was actually circualar.  
"The mission is proceeding without a hitch. The boss should be pleased," The figure said. Boss?  
"You're not Cyrus..." I whispered.  
"No... I am Commander Saturn... Jupiter should be ashamed for letting a kid into the Eterna City building! I'll take you, here and now!"  
Jendoa VS. Kadabra. I went with surf. It used Embargo, preventing item usage for awhile. Toxicroak. I figured Shox could take it.  
"Shox! Go for the Spark!" It did about half. A mud bomb was headed Shox's way. A critical, super effective hit.  
"NO!" I yelled. I had a plan. So, Embargo's only on Jendoa, but I can hyper potion Shox, use charge, and Mud bomb won't be much of a threat. That's my plan. It goes for poison jab. Fine with me. Charge it. It goes for faint attack. No threat. I go for Spark. Dead. Shox is under half, too. She leveled up, and so did Luna. Bronzor, again. I go for Luna. Drain punch will do quite a number. I go for the cosmic power to keep Luna on her toes. It goes for Iron defense. Not this again... Nothing. I guess it's time to go for Jendoa, because Luna really has no special attacking moves.  
"Flash Cannon!" I yell. This was a very serious battle. Victory, or the world. Most of Team Galactic seem to be blathering idiots, but the commanders and Cyrus are a real threat. The flash cannon, although "not very effective", was a guaranteed 2HKO.  
"Gah!" Saturn said. "Even I, a commander, only managed to buy us time? But that's fine. A child like you will never be able to stem the flow of time."  
"Maybe not..." I said. "But with my friends at my side, I'll take you and your leader down, once and for all!" then, Saturn disappeared. The cave was empty at that point. I had to find Rowan, and fast.


	20. Day of Reckoning

I headed to the HQ, but I needed to heal. Cyrus can wait for me to kick his butt, right? I flew to Verity lake, by my hometown. They said they'd be there. I was by my house. The town looked untouched.  
Verity... I started it all here. Jendoa, Sai... They were my first friends... I saw Rowan.  
"Ah, Syndicate! What timing! Those Team Galactic scoundrels are after the legendary Pokemon!" He said.  
"I know. I'll stop them."  
"You've got to help Dawn!" Dawn? What did she need? I had to get through 2 teams of double-battling Galactic Members, but I got through to them.  
"Dawn!" I yelled. She had to deal with Commander Mars.  
"Syn! It's T-Team Galactic!" She said.  
"I'm here for you, Dawn..." I said. I kinda liked her. It'd be a real shame if she had to lose her Pokemon.  
"That face...! It brings back bad memories!" Mars said.  
"Let's make some more for you, shall we?" I said.  
"Let's.." Dawn said.  
"So, what is it? Are you some lovey-dovey couple to the rescue? That was a pretty akward moment both of us. I rubbed my neck, looking down, and she rubbed her foot against the floor. I guess she feels the same way. "Not a chance! Not even a teeny one! You're all going down!" And we fought, but Dawn had to get out of the way. I think she hurt her knee along the way here. Jendoa VS. Golbat. I knew better than to stay in with one of these. They're confuse ray just annoys me. Really.  
"Surf it away, Jendoa!" It went first, and used supersonic. What? Why!? The thing is level 37, and Maverick is 30, and it has supersonic, which is just a worse version of confuse ray? I set up stealth rocks for future things. It used moves that did nothing to Jendoa, and Jendoa finished it with a flash cannon. Bronzor. Not again. I stayed in for this one. I went with flash cannon, because it worked so well on that other one. Half. The Bronzor goes for confuse ray, and I'm just angry now. I actually stayed in to use Surf. Jendoa actually pulled it off, and it was gone. Purugly. Not good for Jendoa if it has attract. Fortunately, like I said earlier, the entire other side of my team was female, so I had plenty of choices.  
"Luna!" I went for Cosmic Power, to set up some good defenses. It actually had hypnosis, and hit Luna. Well, then. Luna woke up immediately after, and drain-punched the pussycat.  
Two more will hit. Why the heck is such a fat cat faster than Luna anyway? I told Mars to get out, and she had all the lake guardians.  
"I see," Rowan said. "This also occurred at Lake Valor.. Another legendary, taken!  
"Where is Trent, anyway?" I asked. "He said he'd be where I was, but I never saw him."  
"I don't know..."  
"I guess I'll be at Veilstone... See you guys soon." I had to heal up. I flew to Veilstone, and went to the HQ. Nothing. I guess I had to check on Trent. I really don't feel like saving him, but fine.  
I went into Mt. Coronet, and found a way on top. Now, I just need to head north. There was no heading back, because if I do, I have to scale the mountain again, and I really don't want to do that. The hail was hurting Jendoa really quickly, so I used a super potion on him. I also found a Sneasel. Those things are epic! I used a Dusk Ball. It'd look really good in one. Unsurprisingly, it failed. I used pluck. Shouldn't do too much. I was correct. I threw another Dusk Ball. It worked! I called it "Shade", after her Dark typing. Yes, another girl.  
The icy path was longer than I thought. I found the Rock Climb TM, and Jendoa was the only one on the team who could learn it. If I require it here, I'll have to say goodbye to Pluck, because there wasn't a nearby Pokemon Center that I knew of. Finally, I reached Lake Acuity.  
"Trent!" I called out. "You are there? Trent!" He wasn't in plain sight, but two Galactic Members were. One said that the Snowpoint Gym leader couldn't get them. So, I decided to find the Snowpoint Gym Leader, who was conveniently enough, east of me. I actually found a Medicham, and caught that. I found a girl who said she'd trade that for a Haunter, and did so. I was upset. Not only did she name it "Gaspar", she also gave it an Everstone! Did I seriously just waste two ultra balls for nothing? I don't care if she was trying to teach me, the girl indirectly LIED to me. At least SAY it has an everstone.  
I put Shade in the background with the Experience Share, and headed into the Gym. Jendoa's steel-typing and newly found Flash Cannon, this felt very simple. The gimmick in this Gym was snowballs and ice physics. By ice physics, I mean that you run on the ice, and keep going until you hit something. After what felt like an eternity, I finally solved the puzzle.  
"You want to challenge Candice?" A girl asked.  
"Yeah. Are you Candice?" I asked.  
"Sure thing! I was waiting for someone tough! But I should tell you, I'm tough because I know how to focus."  
"I'm tough for that and more..."  
"I'll show you what I mean. Get ready to lose!"  
"Let's do this!  
I lead with Jendoa, and she starts with Snover, who's ability summons a snowstorm. I go for Flash Cannon, which kills it, making it utterly useless besides experience and that previously mentioned hail. Medicham. I stayed in, and uses Surf. Jendoa is, by now, a tanky, somewhat fast, powerhouse. The Mystic Water helps. Abomasnow, or Snover's evolved form. I stay in.  
"Jendoa! Hit it with a Flash Cannon!"  
"Y'know, I'm really bored." Shade said on the guidelines. She was trying to become friends with Luna, and I guess it was working.  
The flash cannon was, surprisingly enough, strong enough to kill the Abomasnow. I knew Jendoa was good, but not THAT good. It was the last Pokemon of Candice, or Sneasel.  
"I'm going to break the ice and bring my last-resort Pokemon!" Great pun. Really.  
"After you, my only challenge is Volkner and the Pokemon League!" I said. I was really worried about Volkner. My team isn't exactly equipped for electric-types.  
Jendoa actually outsped the Sneasel, and used Flash Cannon.  
"Wow! You're great!" Candice congratulated me. "You've earned my respect! I'm supposed to give you this!" The icicle badge! Woo! I also got TM72. The TMs all of the gym leaders have been giving me has been corresponding to a move one of their Pokemon used, and not a single Pokemon on her team moved, so I was just oblivious of what it was. Until she told me, of course.  
"Avalanche! If the user takes damage, the power is doubled!" Whoa... I gave it to Shade. She'll probably need it.  
I headed back to Lake Acuity. One of the guards was on their lunch break, so that was easy.  
I found Trent, who was being attacked by Commander Jupiter.  
"You're not getting away with this..." He said  
"Oh?" Jupiter said. "Are you finished already? Your Pokemon aren't bad, but you're laughably weak. You honestly thought you could save the Pokemon of the lake, and become the Champion? Dream on, little kid  
"You might be right, Jupiter, but he's with me. If you have to take him on, you'll need to take me out, too."  
"Listen, Team Galactic is going to do something huge for everyone's sake." She spoke to me.  
"Positive or negative?" I already knew anyways.  
"That's why you should keep out of Team Galactic's way."  
"No! I'm not leaving without a fight!" And she left. I'll go after her later. She told me not to, so I might as well. I picked Trent up.  
"You're not a good trainer, but your a good person, cousin." He gave me a family hug. I actually realized that he calls Rowan "Gramps", when they have no relationship whatsoever.  
I flew to Veilstone, and headed towards the HQ. I found Derpface looking at the antennae. Don't remember him? He was the guy I chased and talked about the bomb in the first place. He remembers me too.  
"Because of you, they took my Clefairy away!" He said. I felt bad for him.  
"You can find Cleffa at Mt. Coronet." That cheered him up.  
"My partner called it quits and went back to his old country.  
"You can visit him every day once I defeat Cyrus."  
"I don't even care about him anymore, but if there is one thing I'll say, it's that I don't know anything about any Storage Key."  
"You... wait, I never said anything about a storage key." He ran away, and dropped something." A storage key! You, Derpface, have redeemed yourself. I had a good time whenever you were nearby. He looked back and smiled, now dissolved into the horizon, or at least behind the game corner.  
I went into the storage, because I have a key now. There was a downstairs area. I checked it out. It was an area made from mostly metal. There were a lot of guards, which is to be expected. I found a staircase that went upstairs. One guard was pretty unfortunate. He didn't even have a Pokemon, so I just walked past him. The area wasn't metallic anymore, just the HQ.  
Past one female guard were two teleporters. I took the one on the left. And the, confusion. After finding the key, I headed back into the HQ, and used it. It led upstairs. More confusion! I can't even keep track of where I'm going here...

I found the final door, and opened it.  
"Cyrus! I'm here to finish this, once and for all!"  
"I see, you must be the trainer I've been hearing about. The foolhardy one that's trying to stand up to Team Galactic. Although, I'd hardly expected to see the trainer is a mere child. If you with to save the legendaries, Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf, go right ahead. I have no use for them anymore. I must say, you are a remarkable specimen. Those Pokemon have nothing to do with you, do they not?"  
"Must it matter?" I asked.  
He scoffed. "Such pitifully useless emotions... It's illogical and irrational."  
"If one of your commanders are dying, and you are the only one to be able to save them, would you?  
"Have they fulfilled their duties?"  
"You monster... I'm taking you out, Cyrus." So we battled. Jendoa VS Murkrow. Jendoa uses Surf, damaging it to the "0 HP" point. Golbat. I switch to Shox.  
"Hit it with a spark!" The Golbat goes for poison fang. No poison, so no real harm done. Golbat is almost dead.  
"Hit it again!" Cyrus heals the thing, not even fully. What a waste of a potion. Last Pokemon, Sneasel.  
"Luna! Finish it!" I yelled. "Use Drain Punch!" It goes for quick attack. Nothing. Sneasel is gone, and Cyrus is done..  
"It's over, Cyrus!"  
"You are indeed strong." Cyrus said. "And the basis of your power is your compassion toward Pokemon."  
"You wouldn't understand the basics of compassion!"  
"Emotions are useless. That's why I abandoned them forever!"  
"That... That's not it..."  
"You touched a Pokemon, didn't you?" I said. "You touched him, and in three short days, your emotions were wiped clean. What was it?"  
"Uxie..." He cringed. "I saw it as a boy... But that doesn't matter. I doubt you will ever understand my position."  
"You have none that can repel me!" He gives me the master ball."  
"For coming here alone." He was a bit respectful now. "If you wish to save them, take the warp panel ahead. I'm off to Mt. Coronet, where we first met." I still don't remember that. I rushed to the panels. There were things inside tubes. Disturbing.  
"Let's see here.." I saw them. Saturn was at a panel, with the three surrounding him.  
"You... you came all the way here just to save some Pokemon?" Saturn said.  
"I did."  
"It's nothing new. Can't say I understand our boss. Why would he let a kid like you come and go freely?"  
"A chance, Saturn. A chance." We fought again. Why? I dunno.  
"I'll just humiliate you for the third time. You know that, right?" I won, no surprise.  
"Gah! What makes you so tough?" Fine, do whatever you want with these. Press the button to set them free." I felt skeptical about this. It worked. Saturn then left, and said something about a red chain. I left and headed to Mt. Coronet. After a stupid amount of climbing, trial, and error, I finally reached the top.  
I came across two guards. I was at the Spear Pillar. I took them out easy.  
"Cyrus! Your plan is falling apart!" I yelled. Jupiter and Mars blocked me.  
"Now, all will end." Cyrus said. "And everything will begin. With this Red Chain I will pry open the portal to another dimension."  
"Don't do it!" I yelled.  
"I command that you unleash your power for me... Dialga, the mythical Pokemon, and the master of time!" There was a long pause.

Suddenly, a portal had opened on a special plate. It was flashing. The longer is stayed, the brighter and more abundant the flashes occurred. Then, it stopped. In the portal's place, was Dialga, deity of time. Time deitys has had many names, including Chronos, but Dialga was the true maser of time. Suddenly, a wave of blue, purple, red, and black, all appeared, and flushed out the colors of the world. Time itself was warping.  
"This will bring about the destruction of all things." Cyrus said. "With everything gone, there will be no fighting and no strife."  
"Look again, spike-face." I insulted Cyrus.  
"Can you feel time distorting? Only I can choose to stop it."  
"I'll make you." The colors fled to other areas, but a black pulse kept coming from Dialga.  
"This is one of the three mythical Pokemon that created Sinnoh. Dialga, the ancient deity of time! I shall create my own world, and become a deity!" I ran up to him.  
"There's no need to rush." Mars said.  
"What, do you want to heave a cup of tea while we're here?"  
"That's not what we have in mind..." Jupiter said. We were ready to battle. Trent came out of absolutely nowhere.  
"Hold on one second!" Trent yelled. "Don't you start the party without me!", the noise by itself causing me to get on my knees, holding my ears.  
"Thanks. You really have paid me back after I went out of my way to save you from Mars. Then, it began. The battle wasn't very notable, except that Luna was badly hurt, and poisoned by a Skuntank, but Trent healed her up.  
"Syndicate" Trent asked.  
"Yeah?"  
"This is it! It's your show now!" Trent left. That's the way it should be. Me, and Cyrus, alone. Trent punched Jupiter and Mars, and they were knocked out cold. Where Saturn was, I have no clue.  
"Oh, Dialga, this is..." Cyrus said. A galaxy pattern appeared under Dialga, glowing bright, and dimming everything else besides Dialga. "Fantastic! Beautiful!" It's the creation of a new galaxy! My new world!" It was as if he just had a baby.  
Suddenly, there was an odd noise. "...Wh-what?!" Cyrus panicked. Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf appeared. Suddenly, the galaxy was stopped, and Cyrus's red chain broke.  
"The red chain! It had been broken, but why? Why would Mesprit, the Pokemon of Lake Verity, appear by your side? Nevermind that! It's all destroyed! My galaxy is gone!" Cyrus said. He shed no tears. "...I won't allow this... I will capture those three again and craft another Red Chain, but before I even think about that, I'm going to completely crush you!"  
"I'll take you out, once and for all!" I yelled. "Let's finish this!"

We begun.

"Jendoa! Go!" Jendoa versus Honchkrow. Jendoa takes it out in two hits with surf. Gyarados comes in, and I switch in to Shox.

"Shox, use spark!" The Gyarados went first, though.

"EAAAAARTHQUAAAAAKE!" Oh god no.

"Shox! Take it! Remember your friends! Remember Vatra! Remember Sai!"

"Sai..." I tear rolled down Shox's face. "No, I won't let him." Shox lived with 30 HP. Weak, but enough. The spark killed Gyarados. Crobat. I used Jendoa, and a surf finished it. Weavile.

"I admit that you have pushed me to this extreme." Cyrus said.

"This is it.. The winner, of this one battle, may dictate the fate of the universe. I sent out Luna, and used Drain Punch.

It was enough.  
"What is truly the ultimate to you? What do you consider perfection?" Cyrus asked.  
"Enough." I answered. "There are no limits, so there is no reason to go too extreme."  
"I doesn't matter. I will become a deity one day, and I will make the ultimate mine."  
"Not today, Cyrus." Cyrus and his assistants left. Suddenly, Rowan and Dawn showed up.  
"Dialga, the master of time..." Rowan said. "It is impossible to tell if it's enraged or saddened. To be, Dialga appears to be waiting for you, Syn. Go on. Listen to it's heart. Understand it's thoughts.  
"I saw Trent earlier. He said that he believed in you and your abilities. I feel the same way. Please, calm Dialga. It's suffering from being dragged out by Galactic.  
"All right, just one thing." I said. We kissed. It was now, or never. She liked it.  
"We'll talk later. See you soon!" Dialga... What challenge did I have to face it with.  
"I want to join you..." He said. "Keep me safe, away from them, with you." I caught him in a Dusk Ball. Last one, too. I named it "Eternal"  
"You were magnificent, Syn! I've lived for sixty years, but I've never been thrilled like this!"  
"Syn," Dawn said. "I'm so glad your safe. Let's go home."


	21. Volkner

I found some guy called "Riley" at Iron Island. He gave me an egg, which hatched into a Riolu, who I called "Soulkyrai". The "Kyrai" is pronounced "cry". I also found a stone that evolved Naomi. She was much more beautiful now...  
I had only one gym leader left I had to face: Volkner, from Sunyshore City, west of Lake Valor. I decided to put most of my focus on Eternal and Naomi. See, Eternal was a god, so that's reason enough. Also, Naomi, believe it or not, resisted electric-type attacks. I flew to Pastoria, and headed west. I actually headed to Lake Valor along the way, and found Azelf in a cave.  
"Are you... okay?"  
"I... I'm lonely.." It said. I invited it to my team, and we carried on. I named it "Azure", after it's blue color. I picked her up in exchange for Maverick. Eventually, I reached Sunyshore. I met up with a guy with a red afro.  
"Yo! Fellow trainer!" he said. "I am Flint! I'm one of the Pokemon League's Elite Four"  
"I can't wait to defeat you." I said.  
"We will see, won't we?" Flint said. Then he said something about battling Volkner because he was just so bored.  
I explored Sunyshore, and found a girl named "Jasmine".  
"..Er...um...M-my name is Jasmine, and I'm a Gym Leader." She said.  
"Where are you from?" I asked. Volkner was the last one in Sinnoh, so there is no way she was from here.  
"I'm a Gym Leader from Johto... Er, um, it's be nice if you knew about Johto."  
"I know of Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, and Kalos." I left and went to the gym, when I actually found it. When I did, I realized almost immediately the gimmick: use green button to move cogs, and the cogs move the path. At the end of each room was a trainer. Easy enough. I led with Eternal, because Naomi was underleveled. I reached Volkner, ready to finish it all.  
"...All right, challenger." Volkner said. "It's not often, but some trainers manage to come and challenge me, but they've all been boring battles. I didn't break a sweat with them."  
"I'll offer you a great challenge. Do not fret." I said.  
"I'm Volkner, the Gym Leader." He sighed. "They say I'm the top Gym Leader in Sinnoh, but... Anyway, we'd better the this done."  
"I agree" This was it. The final gym leader.  
I led with Eternal, and he led with Raichu. I started with "Dragon Breath", but Raichu was fast, VERY fast, so I expected it to go first. It actually went after me. Special move? No, just Brick Break. I couldn't believe a thousand-pound god outsped the evolution of Pikachu. I switched out, because Eternal was a bit weak from the Brick Break. I switched into Naomi to set up some Toxic Spikes. His pokemon was, for some reason, Octillery, who was a water-type. I set one up, and the Octillery uses aura beam, and ice-type move. I outsped it, so the best thing to do is to Giga drain it, because it did over half. I nearly took it out, and was 1 HP from full. It used a rather weak move that lowered Naomi's accuracy. I switched out to Jendoa, because a lowered accuracy isn't my favorite thing to deal with.  
It went for a hyper potion, to fully heal itself. That is not good. I went for Surf, because that's the best Jendoa can do. The Octillery resisted it, so Jendoa got a ciritical hit to counter that. The Octillery used Charge Beam, and electric type move. I was scared, until I realized that the moved sucked. The Octillery was gone. Luxray. I didn't exactly want to go into Shox, because her level was pretty low right now, plus Naomi had lowered accuracy, and Eternal had low HP, but then I remembered...  
"Azure!" She was a REAL force to be reckoned with. Naomi's toxic spikes poisoned Luxray, which helped. I wanted to use Nasty Plot, to raise the special attack, but Luxray had crazy attack, so I didn't want to risk it, so I used Extrasensory, a psychic-type move with a chance to flinch. I didn't get the flinch, the Luxray had a Sitrus berry to heal, but extrasensory did half. I needed to get a flinch on this, or I could be in deep trouble. I didn't, but it did use charge beam, and the poison finished it. Unfortunately, Azure took so much damage. Last Pokemon: Ambipom, a normal type. I switched out to Shox. Shox's intimidate lowered it's attack stat, so that was good. I switched BACK into Luna, for the sake of better levels and type-coverage. It went for agility, raising its speed ALOT.  
"Cosmic Power!" Luna wasn't big on attacking, but she was VERY, VERY good at walling opponents. It went for agility again, wasting it's turn, considering it's already faster than Luna. I went for another Cosmic Power, just to be safe. It went for Nasty Plot. Nasty, but I had Cosmic Power. If Luna can stall this thing enough, the poison will finish the monkey off.  
"Another!" The Ambipom used shock wave, doing barely anything. The one thing I feared from that is paralyzation. I went for Return to finish it all. No more traveling, just one big room. Five opponents, one team. Pokemon League, here I come. It wasn't enough, but the poison was.  
"There's your thrill, Volkner" I said.  
Volker laughed. "That was the most fun I've had in a battle since... I don't know when! It's also made me excited to know you and your team will keep battling to greater heights! This is your eighth badge. You've earned this!"  
"I believe I have." The Beacon Badge!  
"I'd like you take this too." TM57? Charge beam, of course!


	22. The Final Battle

This was it... The end of it all. I talked with Jasmine, and she gave me the HM for waterfall.  
"Thank you." I said. Remember when I said that if I needed Rock Climb, I'd have to replace Pluck? Well, I gave it to Fud. Remember him? Well, Jendoa is the only one here who can learn Waterfall, and I need that to progress. I'll have to get rid of either Pluck or Stealth Rock. Both are pretty good moves, and have their own uses. I flipped a coin to decide. Heads is Pluck is removed, tails is the other one. Tails. It was good for sedimentary value, because Jendoa's had Pluck since he was a Piplup. It was even the first TM I ever used.  
Remember my trainer "license"? No? Me neither. I found it in my pocket just this morning. I realized I lost my old one, so I had to print a new one. I also realized that four out of six of my team members were blue. As a side note, I decided to train like crazy. Cynthia has a reputation for being one of those trainers who are so tough, someone WILL die if they are on equal level.  
After many days of climbing, battling, conquering, and breaking many spirits, I had conquered Victory Road in a surprisingly uneventful way. I went into the Pokemon League to heal. I wanted to leave to train, but before that could happen, Trent appeared, dashing through the door with me moving slightly to the left, leaving him falling over Nurse Joy's desk.  
"Aim next time, okay?" I told him.  
"Heh." Trent laughed as he pulled himself back up. "You haven't been having a good record of hitting the target yourself, unless you wanted me to hit you."  
"I doubt it."  
"Since we're here," Trent jumped over the desk, Nurse Joy unphased by the whole thing. "Why not have a battle?"  
"This isn't the best time..."  
"Great!" It begun. I was stuck with Azure in the lead. It started smoothly...

...but time went on...  
and on...  
Blissey's Shield, Sai's name for the extra life had broken...  
Azure's HP was going down...  
...but there wasn't much choice against  
"Floatzel!" Trent ordered. "Use Aqua Jet!"  
"Syndicate!" Azure yelled, speaking for the first time since we met. "Cyrus wasn't lying! You must beat him! I would have told you later, but it's -"

"Over, Syndicate." Trent spoke while Azure was. "I told you I can hold my own, but you wouldn't listen." I sent out Naomi to finish the job, and Trent went into the League.  
"Where's Cyrus?" I went to speak with Azure. She was barely alive, but it was manageable.  
"He's in Hoenn..." she gasped.  
"What!?" I yelled. "What is he trying to do?" I held her.  
"I can't go on forever, Syn, I must say what is important before it's too late." She was fading, legs up. "My physical form is lost. Without me, all future generations will lose their ability to think for themselves. They'll be just statues, waiting for a command. Find Professor Birch, he'll tell you the rest."  
"Say goodbye, okay?" She had just her head unfaded.  
"Farewell..." My arms were empty. Goodbye, long friend. I guess Cynthia will have to wait.


End file.
